The Widow’s Guide to Dead Bastards really had me in the first half. The first chapter was a little forced feeling–it had a tabloid-y feel- but it set us up for finding out more about her husband’s secrets and their marriage. This theme continued in the book until suddenly it didn’t and it switched to her rambling about the afterlife and psychics in some overly long, noticeably more poorly written chapters.

In the end, we learned very little about her husband, her marriage, and how she dealt with the information that her husband had a long-running affair (among other sexual indiscretions for lack of a better term) and seemed to have grossly mismanaged her money going forward. He never sounded like he was very nice to her and I could never figure out how they ever got together in the first place. Even in describing their first meeting, she talks about how unattractive he was and how she wasn’t interested in him at all. What changed? Why didn’t she trust her instincts? Did he just wear her down? Why did they decide to have a child?

It read like two books forced into one with one half being demonstrably worse. She didn’t take the book to the obvious places (why was he like this, did other people know and help him, what was their marriage really like before his death, what was his family like?) and instead it felt like she ran out of things she was willing to share but still had to meet her deadline so threw in some random chapters to be finished with the book and fulfill her contract.

I did read an ARC from the publisher and Netgalley but unless there was a full re-write, I don’t think they could save this book before publication. It does nothing that the blurb says it will– this doesn’t sound at all what I read:
“A riveting, difficult, and surprisingly beautiful story, The Widow’s Guide to Dead Bastards is also a lyrical exploration of grief, mental health, single parenthood, and betrayal that demonstrates that the most moving love stories aren’t perfect—they’re flawed and poignantly real.”

There was no love story here. She didn’t fully explore grief, mental health, single parenthood, or betrayal. I do think that was what her proposal was about but the book did not deliver.