The Language of Dying

This was an interesting exercise in exploring the grief associated with dealing with an actively dying loved one. While not long enough to dive too deeply into this, I found the story still very raw and emotional. I felt that the "horror" aspect left me wanting more, and confused about its inclusion at all, but overall it was an enjoyable experience.

In The Language of Dying, we follow a woman who is caring after her father who is in his final days after battling cancer. Living in the house she grew up in, she invites her four siblings to come say their final goodbyes, as they laugh and fight over old wounds they all suffer from from a very difficult childhood, leading to them to grow into equally flawed adults. As we explore each of their dealings of grief, we also are introduced to a sort of cryptid our protagonist has encountered a few times since childhood, often appearing at times of intense stress of grief. She wants nothing more than to escape her life with this being, and she feels that its only inevitable that it will appear during her father's final hours.

I've read several different books on grief, often focusing on different aspects of the lifecycle of grief. I've read a few about the active dying process of a loved one, particularly a parent, and I've enjoyed them quite a bit in the past. This was no exception, I found the painful reflection and revisitation of one's complex relationship with their family to be emotional and beautiful. I thought the inclusion of the complicated relationships the narrator has with each of her siblings to be an additionally interesting aspect to this story, and I think it was executed quite well. Despite it being such a short book, each character was fully fleshed out, realistic, and flawed yet lovable (some moreso than others).

However the "horror" aspect of this novella confused me. Perhaps it was supposed to be an allegory for something; latent mental illness, suicide, addiction. But it fell flat. It wasn't present enough to explore fully, and I cant help but think, had the book been a bit longer or less time spent on reflection of the past, this could have been done quite well. But including it as it is, half-baked, just left me wanting more since I looooove the physical manifestation of grief in a story.

If you're looking for something scary or horrific, this isn't it. But if you're looking for an interesting tale of grief and acceptance for a flawed family, you'd like this. Just don't read too much into the scary unicorn with red eyes, it doesn't really go anywhere.