On the surface this is about grief, but really it’s about how we appreciate life. Hilarie talks about her grief after an overwhelming period of loss throughout this book, and it points I had to take a break from listening because it was bringing up old grief for me too. But she talks about things so positively, remembering the people and sharing snippets of their stories and advice. She celebrates the lives of her friends, both living and not, throughout. This really feels like a memoir of many people and their memories, which is very like how she describes her grimoire. She talks about collecting things, advice, memories and her past selves, in order to pass them down to her kids and I love that. 

It’s spiritual and religious in many ways too. I consider myself an atheist but I do also like to think there is something like fate out there. Because of the religious mentions there were parts of this book that made me a bit uncomfortable but not in a bad way. This doesn’t feel preachy or self righteous but rather exploratory and open. It’s more like talking to a group of your friends about their beliefs. I really liked it. It offered new meaning to everyday things.

I really recommend picking this up, but only if you’re in a space to do so because there is a lot of discussion of grief throughout.