Book Recommendation: Renegade Grief

Renegade Grief: A Guide to the Wild Ride of Life After Loss by Carla Fernandez offers a compassionate and validating perspective on grief in the modern world. This book is a lifeline for people grieving rationships that weren’t simple, clean, or easy to explain. Whether you’re estranged from a parent, mourning someone who hurt you, or grieving a person who is still alive but no longer emotionally present, this book validates grief that doesn't follow the rules.

Drawing from her own experiences and her work co-founding The Dinner Party, a peer-support organization for young adults who have experienced significant loss, Fernandez challenges the conventional, often linear, approach to grieving. She recognizes that grief can be messy, non-linear, and deeply personal, especially when mourning relationships that were fraught or unresolved. Her work answers questions like:

• How do I grieve someone who caused me pain?
• Why do I feel guilty for not missing them more?
• What do I say when people pressure me to forgive or reconnect?
• Am I allowed to feel relief and grief at the same time?

Renegade Grief is not about making peace with a sanitized version of the past. Instead, it’s about honoring your truth and finding your way through loss.