'Kit' & kin

When Rose first discovers a Survival Kit left by her recently deceased mother, she can't bear to contemplate the individual meanings of the items her mother left her. Collectively, they are supposed to help Rose through her grief, but right now she is too closed-off to deal with it. With her older brother away at college and her father's drinking problem rendering him helpless, Rose's isolation only increases, leading - ironically - to a break-up with her boyfriend, the Big Man on Campus Chris. Finally, inspired by one of the items in her kit, Rose reaches out to Will, their stoic gardener whose own father passed away a couple years ago. A soulful friendship blossoms between the two, and slowly Rose begins to socialize with her old cheerleader friends and experience some school spirit. As she starts to find her new place in this post-Mom world, she thinks she might be returning to normal. But then another crisis tests her and Will, and she has to decide how to pick up the pieces of her newly broken self.

I can think of one other book in recent memory that I've read that deals with the loss of a parent, and The Survival Kit is Shakespeare compared to that one. Well-paced and well-executed, this book has the right balance of grief and hope that readers would hope for. It's neither overly sentimental nor too dark, despite the themes of alcoholism and death. There's something appealing about the idea of survival kits as well, and the use of the items in Rose's are woven in nicely throughout the plot. Rose herself has a neat, if a bit too tidy, character arc about growing up and stepping out of Chris's shadow, and her grieving process is quite moving at times. I'm almost certain the author has experienced deep loss in real life - Rose's emotions and reactions are that real and vivid.

I don't know how to view her relationship with Will within the context of the story. Don't get me wrong: it's sweet and lovely and evolves naturally. There's nothing wrong with it in and of itself. All the same, I feel like the story of "Rose comes to terms with the loss of her mother" is occasionally muscled out by the story of "Rose meets a great guy." It just struck me as odd. I think this is a personal nitpick, though, and readers can make up their own minds about this. On a minor note, I wish certain other characters were developed a little more, such as Rose's father and her cheerleader friends (whose main character trait is "perky"). It would've given a later scene in the novel more depth and meaning.

Overall, this is a smart, emotional book that provides readers with a fine heroine and a fine romance. Rating: 4 blooming peonies out of 5.