Of Love And Loss
The Museum Of You by Carys Bray is a contemporary novel and wow… what a read! It is realistic. It is open and honest. It is a very raw study of grief and loss and love. It was an amazingly powerful read.
Clover is twelve years old. It is the summer holidays. She has a love of museums and decides to rearrange a bedroom into a museum of you. Clover never knew her Mum but spends her time trying to know her through her things. Clover is grieving for someone she never knew. The reader feels her loss and emptiness and her desire to fill the space in her life.
Clover’s Dad Darren is grieving and has been for twelve years. He says “people aren’t speed bumps, you don’t get over them.” Darren has never had any sort of closure on his grief. He is still feeling just as hurt as ever. Carys Bray shows how grief is linked to love through the character of Darren. “Grief never goes away…it’s only the other side of love.” Great love equals great pain when death steps in. The reader empathises with Darren’s love and grief.