The Impossible Resurrection of Grief

by Octavia Cade

IN A DYING WORLD, GRIEF HAS A LIFE OF ITS OWN...

With the collapse of ecosystems and the extinction of species comes the an unstoppable melancholia that ends in suicide. When Ruby's friend, mourning the loss of the Great Barrier Reef, succumbs to the Grief, the letters she leaves behind reveal the hidden world of the resurrected dead. The Tasmanian tiger, brought back from extinction in an isolated facility, is only the first... but rebirth is not always biological, and it comes with a price. As a scientist, Ruby resists the Grief by focusing her research on resilient jellyfish, but she can't avoid choosing which side she's on. How can she fight against the dead and the forces behind them when doing so risks her home, her life, and the entire biosphere?

Genres: Science Fiction, Novella, Fiction, Horror, Climate Change Fiction, Speculative Fiction, Australia

84 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 20, 2021

Reviews

[Jaidee · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 "embryonic, unfinished, tantalizing" stars !!

2021 READ WHERE i WISH I WAS EDITOR AWARD

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and Steliform Press for an e-copy of this novella. This work will be released May 2021. I am providing my honest review.

Thank you to Marchpane whose review prompted my interest in reading this book.

This book is unfinished. The novella form is not well suited to this work. In this work lie so many interesting ideas about animal and plant extinction, environmentalism, art, love, friendship and ecology. The ideas and premises are fascinating, thought provoking and if worked on could be a major player in the speculative fiction genre. The author has pasted together this work and does a whole lot of tellin', a whole lot of 'splainin, a whole lot of glossing over what could be a five hundred page novel that could rival Atwood's dystopian trilogy.

I see such huge potential for this book both in a literary fashion but also to assist humanity in realizing what our continued ignorance, disdain and greed is doing to our beautiful earth and all the lovely creatures.

I sincerely hope Ms. Cade goes back and expands, edits and embellishes a work that is highly imaginative, provocative and important.

(Also a shout out to the cover designer for creating something spectacularly beautiful !)

[Marchpane · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Impossible Resurrection of Grief is a slim speculative fiction novella that takes the real phenomenon of eco-grief and amplifies it into a dementing contagion known as ‘The Grief’. Sufferers are afflicted with unbearable feelings of loss, guilt, and complicity, brought on by species extinction.

The Grief manifests in different ways: for most, it leads to bizarre behaviour and ultimately, suicide. A few are driven to try to recover the losses, either through de-extinction efforts (aka the Jurassic Park method), or by creating replacements—lifelike little robot birds, or holograms of lost habitats.

I will admit I was drawn to pick this up because of the thylacines on the cover and I’m so glad I did. Octavia Cade writes just the kind of speculative fiction that I like—smart, topical, a tiny bit surreal—and this hit the spot. The trans-Tasman setting, the sweet, affectionate dynamic between the protagonist and her recently estranged husband, the oddball events, all give this novella a brightness that is undercut by the grim real world issues it presents. It’s a balance that works.

80 pages is a tricky length for a book, one that seems especially difficult to get right. It feels awkward here, like either a truncated novel or an over-padded short story, just not quite the right size for the story being told. This short read is still knocking around in my head and I’m very glad to have discovered Cade’s work.

[Richard Derus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Today, 5/20 @ 8pm EDT, Stelliform Press celebrates this #BookBirthday! And you can get tickets: https://tinyurl.com/5p689rhk

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: Here's how we start this tale:

The Sea Witch lived in an abandoned salt water pool. I knew her when she was called Marjorie and had the office next to mine at the University, but when the Grief came on her she stopped coming into work and set herself up at the derelict public pool with a stack of useless journal articles and a lifetime supply of plastic.

That's a high-octane start to what turns into a careening rush between ugly and awful, ending its trip at unthinkable.

And you will not be blamed for wondering why I now say: Get this book right now. Sit down, open it, and then let Author Cade do her wicked, caustic thing for/to you.

The jellyfish migrated through the lake during the day, and snorkelers could swim with them, with thousands of jellies, with millions of them, and see in their lovely, delicate forms the histories of another life. They pulsed around me like little golden hearts, shimmering in the surface layer of waters, and it was as close as I've ever come to religious communion.

On a Palau dive a woman, Marjorie, becomes the narrator's very best friend. Marjorie's obsession is the Great Barrier Reef. The ladies, scientists both, bond over their love of and understanding for the ocean's many and wildly variable ecosystems, all under threat from Anthropogenic Climate Change (maybe you've heard about it?)—but few ecosystems are under greater threat than the Great Barrier Reef. Marjorie succumbs to a new thing, the Grief, a declining mental health state that invariably ends in suicide, that is becoming more and more prevalent among humans who, for idiosyncratic reasons, suddenly can no longer bear to exist in the changing world.

Our narrator, called Ruby as we discover about midway through the story, is apparently immune to the Grief. So is her Māori husband, George...not a scientist, an artist of science subjects, so it's really not science that saves or damns. But Marjorie retreats to behaviors so weird, so utterly foreign to her former self, and yet still sea-themed...she renames herself "the Sea Witch" from "The Little Mermaid" by H.C. Andersen, which is also what she named the expensive boat she bought herself before the Grief and burned to the water-line after it...that it's clear what the decline's end will be while remaining unclear what the hell she's going to do next. The next thing the Sea Witch does...well....

That is a thing of spoilers. The things Marjorie, I mean the Sea Witch, does or causes or abets, are...disturbing. I will leave it to you to read the under-100 page novella, instead of doing what I would love to do and relating the scary, freaky, incredible things that Ruby rips from pillar to post to attempt to make sense of, to attempt to explain to herself (and very possibly the authorities, though which ones and what she could convince them to do in a Grief-stricken world is unclear even to her) what Grief is doing to some apparent survivors.

Why I want you to get this book is really very simple: I need people to talk about it with! There are so many fascinating characters...Tasmanian Granny the Thylacine Jesus for one, addled by Grief but quite the scientist withal, and maybe the Sea Witch's relative...? Ruby goes to visit her at...well, because she gets a Message to, although George her husband isn't keen on it:

"Hurt's easy enough to live with," he said. "If there's an end to it. Break your arm and it hurts, but it heals soon enough and the hurt goes away. Even a small pain, if it never leaves...It wears you down," he said. "In the end it isn't the hurt that gets you, it's the exhaustion."

He's right; physical or psychic, it's the unending aches that cost one the most to survive. As for how that explains the Grief, and those who succumb, we don't know if it's causal or correlative, but Indigenous peoples all over are succumbing to the Grief in greater numbers than the population as a whole. Great grief is always a form of insanity, a melding of psychosis and depression, but Granny is extra no matter what yardstick we're using. The Sea Witch, if she's related, came by it honestly. Gawd...this climate-changed world of Author Cade's is one scary place! Resurrection is never a harbinger of sunshine lollipops and rainbows, anywhere, anytime.

"Some people said...{t}he coming of people like me, and what we'd done to Tasmania, the rest of Australia, and what we'd don in New Zealand...the same devouring, the same indifference to the pre-existence of other life. The same conversation, over and over, with different settings and different subjects." (Ruby speaking)
–and–
"I guess we all got better and better at killing. What a shock it must be, to find how efficiency in slaughter always takes the upward trajectory." (George speaking)

At the end of the read, Author Cade delivers a devastating truth to us, one that went straight into my commonplace book. Ruby is having the one conversation she most hoped she wouldn't have to have, and least expected to be remotely possible. In her newly cleared eyesight, she sees this: Self-knowledge was the clearest thing in the world. It was also the unkindest.

Unholy, misbegotten things always survive, don't they? Isn't that Evolution's sick little secret?

[Janelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was initially drawn to this book by the striking cover. Like many people I have a fascination for thylacines, the last known member of the species died in captivity in 1935. The black and white footage of this animal pacing around its enclosure is compelling and often when there’s talk of cloning extinct species, the thylacine is mentioned.
This brilliant novella is set in the nearish future. I was drawn into the story immediately and couldn’t it put it down, in fact It could’ve been longer for me.
The Great Barrier Reef is dead and has been taken over by the crown of thorns starfish and jellyfish. Ruby, the narrator is a scientist who loves jellyfish and the jellyfish have adapted to the temperatures brought about by climate change. Her friend , Marj is suffering from the Grief over the loss of the reef. The Grief affects many people, it’s a depression and feeling of great loss due to ecosystem devastation and usually ends in suicide.
I think this story will stick in my mind for some time. It talks about the waves of extinctions that humans have brought about through colonisation, hunting and environmental destruction. There’s a lot of sadness yet also wonder that people can still go on and ignore what’s happening.

“Can you watch something die and let it die?”

[Jasmine · Rating 3 out of 5]

“The shift in climate that we’d ignored for so long, that we’d only given lip service to preventing…when it came it took so many of us with it, took us with floods and droughts. That was a small thing, really, and we were practiced at looking away, so long as it only happened to other people, in other places. But when it started taking what lived with us-the birds and the beasts and creatures that we loved, the green world that grew up around us, well. That was a loss we hadn’t prepared for, for all we had allowed it…encouraged it, even, though our choices.”

The Impossible Resurrection of Grief is a story of loss over everything else. Loss of self, loss of familiarity, and a loss of environment. It explores the response of humanity as it struggles with the mass exodus of ecosystems. This results in ‘The Grief’, an all-encompassing depression that typically ends in suicide.

I truly did love the premise of this incredibly short speculative fiction story. That being said, I really would’ve enjoyed seeing this fleshed out a bit more. The storytelling is dark, different, and thoughtful. This book would be great for readers that enjoy Jeff Vandermeer or other sci-fi/speculative fiction works. My only real qualm with Resurrection is the length. There’s just so much more needed, at least for me. It’s a 3 star read for me.

Thanks so much to NetGalley and Stelliform Press for this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Impossible Resurrection of Grief is a troubling novella, in which New Zealand scientist-author Octavia Cade explores the moral considerations surrounding and human emotional implications of species extinction.
In a not-too-distant climate ravaged future, research scientist Ruby specialises in the study of jellyfish species. She's fortunate, in that the species for which she feels both a personal and professional fascination are able to adapt to warming waters and other environmental effects caused by human-induced climate change. Many of her colleagues have not been so lucky, in particular her friend and colleague Marjorie, who once studied reef ecosystems and has witnessed the death of the Great Barrier Reef due to climate change.
Marjorie, who now identifies as The Sea Witch, has become afflicted by a progressive experiential depressive illness labelled as Grief, an devastating diagnosis that is spreading throughout the world as individuals face the reality of a world forever changed for the worse.

"That was always the hardest part of Grief, the realization that the absence, and the loss, was total." (Location 1090)

While some descend into Grief, others emerge as "new resurrectionists", attempting to reinstate, or at least replicate what has been lost, by means of biological technology, animatronics or hologram. Through Ruby, accompanied by her estranged husband George, Cade explores the scientific, human and moral implications of this. How do we choose which species are worth saving (or worth resurrecting)? Do we have any right to choose, given that it is we who have initiated their destruction? What are our motives in attempting renewal - is it for the benefit of the species involved, or our own?

"The Reef had been iconic, and nothing had been done to stop the pale skeletal death. That iconic was a statement of worth itself, because who were we to judge which absence was the most distressing, or the least deserved? Hard to make that judgment without mirrors, but we did." (Location 625)

Octavia Cade's writing is intelligent and immersive, successfully evoking the simultaneous wonder and incipient horror of what Ruby witnesses. She employs familiar motifs from fairytale and fable, emphasising the inevitability of human hubris when faced with the limitations of the natural world.
The Impossible Resurrection of Grief was a disquieting read, but really thought-provoking in its consideration of both past and present attitudes to the natural environment. I'd recommend this short novel to readers who enjoy high quality cli-fi, as well as those who are concerned by both colonial and modern capitalist attitudes to humans' dominion over the physical world, in some cases including other humans.
My thanks to the author, Octavia Cade, publisher Stelliform Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this title.

[Gautam Bhatia · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful, haunting novella about climate change, the terrain of physical - and other kinds - of loss, and the nameless melancholy (or the "twilight" of the soul that Amjad Nasser wrote about) that comes with losing something without quite knowing what it is that you've lost.

As an added bonus, you'll learn a lot about jellyfish.

[Bertie (LuminosityLibrary) · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Impossible Ressurection of Grief is set in a world where widespread extinction and the impacts of climate change are strongly felt. A disease called grief has arisen from these events, always leading in the person's death. It was beautifully written, uncanny, and even fairytale-inspired in parts. I'd definitely recommend this to people who love strange, thoughtful short stories. My one complaint is it felt slightly odd in its length, too short to truly be a novella, but too long for a typical short story. I would have loved to have seen a longer book to explore the themes even deeper.

CW: Suicide, self-harm, violence, death, minor gore, colonialism

Thanks to Stelliform Press for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review

If you enjoy diverse sci-fi, fantasy, and horror you should check out my Blog! You could also follow me on Twitter or Instagram.

[Degenerate Chemist · Rating 1 out of 5]

The best thing about "The Impossible Resurrection of Grief" is that it is short. The story itself is pretty mediocre and the characters are flat an unimpressive. I spent most of my time feeling bored and unengaged. This book has ridiculous amounts of melodrama.

If you want to avoid racism you should avoid this book

1. The author says that indigenous people are more vulnerable to the Grief- you would only believe that if you were cool with stereotypes and hadn't been paying any attention to the work of BIPOC in drawing attention to climate change. It won't be indigenous people being melodramatic whiners at the worst possible time.

2. The author compares invasive species being more successful in new environments to European settlers being more successful in those same environments. I believe she even writes something about how it is unfair to punish invasive species for making better use of the land. It wasn't very subtle.

In short this book is mediocre and poorly written. The author also has some questionable beliefs about indigenous people. Better to pass this one by.

[Miss Bookiverse · Rating 4 out of 5]

The idea of "Grief" as a psychological state that mixes grief and guilt about the loss of a species and ends in suicide is absolutely brilliant, especially in 2021. Generally, there were a lot of themes in this short novella that tied in so well with the overall topic of extinction, such as fairy tales and divorce. I was also impressed by the inclusion of the discussion of (Western) people being sadder about losing animal species than indigenous nations as a result of the climate crisis. The Australian/New Zeland setting was another plus. The only thing I wish had been a little clearer was the Sea Witch's plan and the overall ending. I felt a little lost after the last paragraph, but maybe that's the point in a story like this.

[ianthereader · Rating 3 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️⭐️✨

“Can you watch something die and let it die? The answer, too often, was yes.”

The Impossible Resurrection of Grief is a strange novella, that would be offensive if it weren’t gleaming with sharp truth.
While ultimately pessimistic, this story is so important, as it holds the reader accountable, causing them to be more introspective, opening up their eyes to things they have chosen to ignore.

This novella gazes unflinchingly at how humanity faces and more often chooses not to face, the bitter realities of the environmental decline of the world around us. This novella implies that deep down people only care about things that are personal to them, and are ultimately unfazed by things that do not directly impact their way of life or their preferences. “Monstrous self interest masquerading as emotional stability”, as it is put in the story. Mirrors are a huge symbol in the story, and questions whether or not we are really honest with ourselves when we self-reflect, or if our own perceptions of ourselves are self-created with the intent of idealizing.

This novella tells the truth without regard for sensitivity, which I found refreshing. The story is a chameleon of sorts, shifting between science fiction and fable, but all the while maintains a dark and gritty tone that shows hopelessness and beauty entwined. I didn’t feel attached to any of the characters in a meaningful way, but I think that is partly because they were pretty detached and selfish people. It was purposeful, which I can also appreciate.

I think this novella fully accomplished it’s purpose, and while I would not say I loved the experience of reading it, I did benefit from it and I do recommend it.

Thank you Netgalley, Octavia Cade, and Stelliform Press for an early copy of this novella.

[Elliot · Rating 1 out of 5]

Nope. Big nope from me. This pushed my buttons in the worst way. The book constantly laments about how no one (except the protagonist of course) cared about climate change which led to catastrophic extinction events. And yet the conceit of the book is that people care so much about these extinctions that they are overcome by Grief and go mad and kill themselves. Essentially wanting it both ways, to complain about how no one cares while simultaneously crying about how much certain enlightened subsections of people in fact do care. (And it’s worth asking why the book wants to say both of these things.)

I might have been able to get past this internal dissonance except I found the book extremely self pitying. It drips with hand wringing fatalism, which is a particular tone in recent fiction (and nonfiction) that I find exceptionally exasperating. The hopeless moping that everything is doomed is just as unproductive and unhelpful as climate change denial - both stances encourage inaction. We’re-fucked-so-why-bother-trying isn’t really a story I’m interested in reading or seeing perpetuated. We need more narratives that empower action and progress and fewer about how we’re all doomed poor us.

Writing this review, and really thinking about it, uncovered how pissed off this book made me. Really it’s a matter of it rubbing me the wrong way. I can see this same book reading very differently for others, perhaps being cathartic. I did think the prose was fairly decent which is why I bothered to finish it. All in all I’d be willing to try Octavia Kade again, but I’d be very very wary going in.

Book club: 05/23

[Nathaniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A slow, beautiful, moving story that peels back the layers of grief surrounding climate change.

[Darshayita Thakur · Rating 3 out of 5]

TW: Suicide, Mental health, Colonialism.

Octavia Cade likes using speculative fiction to talk about science in new and interesting ways, and this shows in her work.
The Grief is at large, more people are becoming afflicted with it. But what exactly is this Grief?
It is "the undermining up-welling of loss in response to ecosystem devastation, the failure of conservation"
No one knows how or why it strikes. "It wasn't the same for everyone. Some people didn't get it at all. Some people got it more than others- there was a higher rate of grief in Indigenous populations, another negative metric people didn't want to acknowledge lest it highlight their own culpability and continued privilege."

This short novella touches on relevant themes and the author does have a unique way of presenting them. It explores the impact of climate change and its consequences on the human psyche. It equates the loss of the ecosystem with that of a loved one and paints a grim picture of what our future could look like - but it is speculative fiction, right?

The plot takes a backseat with this one, rather it is the questions raised through the story that make this work shine.

Then why have I rated it only 3 stars?

The foremost reason would be, the story felt somewhat like an over-mixed cake batter. The taste is there but the texture is a bit off. Apart from the awareness issue, the story could have been so much more. The plethora of twists and turns, new characters and their limited contribution seemed forced and rushed.
The character development lacked depth. Regardless of the fact that it is only some 80 pages long, the characters had room for growth, and for being more interesting.

No doubt, it left me with some important thoughts as to what my contribution, as a species, should be towards the protection of other species facing extinction, but it also left me questioning as to what happens at the end, and I don't like that.
Maybe this question is not meant to be answered through this book, but to be realized through our actions.

Thank you NetGalley and Stelliform Press for providing this e-ARC.

[Yahaira · Rating 4 out of 5]

An unsettling and beautifully written speculative fiction on climate change, grief, colonialism, greed and tech. This book grabbed me from the beginning with images of the ‘Sea Witch’ in an abandoned saltwater pool surrounded by plastic suffering from the ‘Grief’. The ‘Grief’ is a psychological illness that flourishes and evolves as everything else collapses; it is contagious and, sometimes, hard to spot. It usually ends in death. Not everyone reacts the same to every ecological death.

Through this short novella we see Ruby travel through Tazmania and New Zealand dealing with the loss of her friend and marriage, but not really reacting to the larger losses (and resurrections) around her. We see tech used in different ways to bring back what was lost- through genetics, robotics, and art? I found all of this intriguing, but ultimately too short. Each new encounter and character could have been developed deeper. There is such a rich story to be expanded upon here. The ending was abrupt and a little bit confusing. I read it twice and I’m still not sure what we should be thinking from that encounter. If Cade ever revisits this story I’ll be sure to pick it up.

I love that this story is a mirror we’re made to hold while answering the question “Can you watch something die and let it die?”.

Thank you Stelliform Press for the ARC.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read about this on twitter and I ordered it immediately. A near future imagining of what it does to people to watch so many species and habitats fall to extinction. Certain people fall to the Grief, which always ends in suicide. Or does it? Disturbing and full of so many challenging and uncomfortable thoughts about our relationships to other species, other people, to the environment in general. Incredibly timely.

[Shannon (That's So Poe) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm coming to realize that I adore Cade's writing. It is so beautiful and immersive and filled with science as well as emotion. I loved how this story explored the grief of humanity over the destruction of nature in a science fiction setting. It got a little bit literary, especially at the end, and totally went over my head, but I still really enjoyed the experience.

Content Warnings:
self-harm, suicide, intense grief, mental instability, animal death

[Nadia · Rating 3 out of 5]

????

[Jae · Rating 1 out of 5]

Tw// suicide, self harm, depression

This was a very unique read. I’d never read something like this before and I appreciate the themes explored in this a lot, but at the same time the book simply wasn’t for me.

I’ll start with the good. The author has clearly done the required research and it shows in the writing. One of the most notable aspect was the handling of the Grief, the literary input regarding that, suicide, loneliness, depression, was put together really well and the focus on the environment and ecology truly was phenomenal in this book. Its just a very quotable book!

That said, the story felt like a meandering mess. There was no plot to it. I was waiting for something more to happen when it ended and nothing happened. While it lacked in plot, it also lacked in characters, there was no depth to the mc and i did not feel connected to her story or invested in any of the characters. The writing itself was accessible but not phenomenal or captivating.

Despite these, i think those were never a focus of the story. It dealt with a futuristic scenario and the theme was about loss and grief we feel from the extinction of other species and that was brought about and discussed, in a literary sense, phenomenally within the book. The author tackled and accomplished what the author had wanted really well!! So I definitely would recommend this book for people who enjoy speculative science books!!

Thank you to Stelliform Press for granting me with an arc in exchange for an honest review via NetGalley!

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

This short novella follows Ruby, a scientist, living in a time of Grief – when some are overwhelmed with a sense of loss and guilt for climate change and extinctions that ends in suicide. Ruby is always navigating her own susceptibility to it, and when her former colleague Marjorie is lost to Grief and leaves behind a mysterious stack of letters she begins to follow clues that lead her to several apparently ‘resurrected’ extinct species. However, these resurrections are anything but straightforward, and each one prompts questions about the possibility (or not) of undoing devastation.
Cade’s writing is beautiful – the characters felt multi-faceted and real. I did find the ending to be very abrupt, though I can understand this as a deliberate choice given the content of the text. My criticism here would be that the plot at times feels more like a vehicle for asking environmental + ethical questions than it does a story that really stands on its own – it doesn’t read as particularly subtle to me. However, do I appreciate the ways that Cade has found to ask a lot of important questions – about responsibility, accountability, the (in)ability to feel deep connection to (an)other specie(s) and to grieve them when they’re gone. I also appreciate that Cade has made clear connections between climate change, species extinction, and colonialism + genocide (I will note here that as a reader, I am not located in Australia or NZ and am not as knowledgeable about these histories as I could be – readers with more understanding of colonialism in this region specifically may have more to say here). I would, based on this novella, absolutely read more of Octavia Cade’s work.
Thank you to Stelliform + NetGalley for the ARC of this book.
Content warning: suicide, genocide, colonialism

[Cherrelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

The impossible resurrection of my attention.

Beyond being a bit heavy-handed, there is a profound lack of connection on exhibit here. The main character is very obviously a stand-in for modern society - sympathetic to the plights of others, but ultimately unbothered unless those plights directly and negatively affect them. As long as her personal interests are preserved , even the Grief of the world isn't that big of a deal - it could even be a good thing for her. It feels like a submission for an environmental scholarship from a talented high school student who struggles to connect with other humans.

The story can be a bit contradictory, complaining both of humans not caring enough and then of caring too much, taking meaningful action at neither point. It can also be said that it's a bit racially insensitive, with frequent mention of how the Indigenous feel the Grief so much more than the Colonizers. It seems to indicate Indigenous populations care Too Much, but don't do anything about the worsening state of the world, while the Colonizers don't care enough, yet they were more efficient and effective at using the land than those they stole it from.

The phrasing is beautiful. The premise is interesting. The execution is too short. We aren't given enough to grab on to and genuinely care about, so that when the climax occurs we're left with only the feeling of "That's it? Where's the rest of the story?" For me, this novella was a perfect example of a work that insists upon itself. Overall not the biggest waste of time, especially since it's so short, but not leaving me with a sense of accomplishment either.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Twisty little tale of grief and “The Grief” from our coming mass extinction. I think it seems to convert the reader like the main character is (pretty sure)
Maybe can make readers catch it’s fictional mental illness

[T · Rating 2 out of 5]

The way I am so conflicted about this book. It was… okay. Maybe I’ll leave a real review later about what worked and didn’t work.

Update: I walked away and thought about the book for 5 minutes and came back to drop my rating. Real review later maybe. There’s a lot of things not sitting right.

[Jennifer Collins · Rating 5 out of 5]

The weight of this slim novella sends a riptide of vision into the reader within the first few pages, and Cade's powerful prose and storytelling never let up from there. As the story unfolds, becoming all too real a something that I could envision for our struggling world, what begins as horror and sorrow moves forward into a terrain of wonderfully careful suspense and revelation which, in the end, comes full circle to the emotions Cade pushed on the reader to begin with. Despite wanting to look away, I read the second half of this novella in one sitting, and the weight of it will stay with me for some time.

Absolutely recommended.

[madi · Rating 2 out of 5]

this was a short novella that I typically wouldn't be drawn to but thought i'd give it a try when I came across it at the library. this is a climate fiction novella, that explores mourning the loss of climate and the environment through a diagnosable and uncurbable psychological disease called 'the Grief'.
it has some interesting theoretical and scientific concepts and touched on some issues - like the impact of colonisation on the environment and the nature of science in trying to enact societal change, but I just don't think this book did much of anything with it - there was no moral, alot of ambiguity, no clear plot, and no interrogation of how we can reverse (or at least reduce) the impacts of climate change now. i wish this book did more with the concepts it introduced, and had a better balance of beautiful and moving prose and scientific jargon.

[Lupe Dominguez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not sure I’ve ever been so confused by a book before. I understand the grief, the eco grief but there was a whole lot of metaphor that I just couldn’t wrap my head around.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

My thoughts on this book are in this wrap up.

[Christina.escapes.reality · Rating 4 out of 5]

“We weren’t thunderstorms, nor did we blunder about, blind as bacteria. We had the capacity for choice, and what we had chosen- what we continued to choose- was death.”

Today I finished #theimpossibleresurrectionofgrief by #octaviacade. This speculative dystopian eco-thriller is an eye opening read that everyone should be aware of.
Due to species and ecosystem extinction from climate change, humans are faced with “the Grief,” a physiological illness of overwhelming guilt and remorse for the complacency and ignorance exhibited at preventing such devastation, resulting in mass suicide. It’s so common in this current world that healthcare professionals disregard diagnoses of it, due to the inevitability of humans success at ending their lives regardless.
Ruby is a marine biologist who’s going through a divorce, and is doing all she can to avoid succumbing to the Grief herself and finding purpose to go on in such a dismal world. So much so that Ruby has dedicated the remainder of her hope to supporting jellyfish, who have managed to adapt to the rising ocean temperatures to survive, even as the Great Barrier Reef has turned to bleach and decay. Ruby’s friend Marjorie soon succumbs to the Grief, and the remainder of the novel portrays Ruby’s attempt at processing her friends decision to end her life, as she was unable to notice the signs of her impending demise.
We are then led on a speculative journey with Ruby as she attempts to understand her purpose in the world and essentially what humans are fighting so hard to live for if everything around them is already dead. This is a vitally important read regarding the inevitability and severity of climate change and how it will impact our ecosystems and homes if we do not attempt to alter its course. Ruby’s thoughts hit close to home when she realizes her hope isn’t the same as other’s hope, and holding onto one aspect of life to find purpose to continue is futile if everything else is gone. It’s sad really- there’s no point in saying “well at least my life is good even though it’s not elsewhere” when you can’t even walk outside your home to birds or sunshine or greenery or own a pet anymore. As Majorie hauntingly states, “..it’s all dead but for the jellyfish.. it’s so lonely there,” leading to the grim realization that life is meaningless without LIFE!
A desperate, imminent, uncomfortable read that makes you take responsibility for your actions; your individual actions can help change the world. This was my first granted #netgalley eARC (suuuper late to the netgalley game😅)! Thank you so much to them and @stelliformpress for granting me access to such an imperative read! This novella will be published 5/20/21🌍
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Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

[Jacqie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought the ideas in this book were interesting but I didn't like the cynicism and bitterness. If I were to rate how much I enjoyed it I'd rate it a 1 but the concepts were interesting enough that I bumped it up one star.

I've read one other book by this author and I've noticed that she likes to equate her characters to animals. In The Stone Weta, different scientists used survival tactics from the animals that they related to. Something similar happens in this book. Ruby, our main character, researches jellyfish. These creatures move with the current and are seemingly passive, but they trail poisonous fronds through the water for their prey to wander into. Ruby feels like she goes along to get along. She feels bad for her friends that have succumbed to Grief, but doesn't understand them. These Grief-stricken scientists relate to the bleaching reefs, to the long-extinct thylacines, to the tiny birds who were predated into extinction by invasive species. These Grief-stricken scientists are trying out new survival mechanisms, some of which include fighting back.

Again, the concepts in this book are interesting. What I didn't like so much: this book is a shriek of rage against everyone who is not absolutely and constantly outraged about the process of climate change. The scientists in this book think that no one at all cares except for themselves. They look with contempt upon everyone who is still trying to live their lives because they don't see how anyone can continue on with this utterly tragic (I say absolutely unironically) extinction happening. It seems that this author has a degree in science communication. If that's the case, then she should know that if you are trying to connect with an audience, you need to give them something to hope for, something that they think they can do. Treating your audience as a bunch of idiots who can't see what's plainly in front of them or telling them that it's all too late to do anything to change future outcomes is no way to motivate them to action. Maybe the author is tired of trying to educate and just needs a way to scream her own grief into the world. I didn't find it helpful, though.

[Monique · Rating 3 out of 5]

“The thing about Grief: once it comes it never leaves. The Grief is spiralling down and down into loss that can never be recovered, that will never lack culpability. It’s the guilt that makes it so devastating...and so profoundly destructive.”

Octavia Cade’s novella The Impossible Resurrection of Grief takes place in the near future and runs under the assumption that we have done nothing to combat climate change. It’s not necessarily post-apocalyptic, but more pre- or mid-apocalyptic. The world hasn’t descended into complete chaos, but it’s certainly on its way. Grief is no longer just an emotion - it’s a disease, capital G. The Grief manifests itself in different ways, but it involves mourning what humans have done to Earth, a descent into madness and dissociation from reality, and always ends in suicide. The novel follows Ruby and her husband, George, as they navigate this new “normal” and the loss of close friends and acquaintances to Grief.

I was so intrigued by the premise of Cade’s novella. I had never read anything like it, and was excited to get my hands on it. It’s a very quick read; coming in under 100 pages, it took me a little over an hour to finish. Honestly, I wish it had been longer. Some elements were thrown in and could have used more explanation and/or background, and I wish there had been more character development. Some descriptions got a little too wordy at times for me, and I felt that the limited space could have been better used for the development of the story and the characters. I did enjoy the mix of genres - I would classify this as both a sci-fi and a new-age fable. Overall, it was an interesting read, and I appreciated Cade’s uninhibited portrayal and warning of a world where our efforts to combat climate change were too little, too late.

Thank you to NetGalley, Stelliform Press, and Octavia Cade for the e-ARC!