Giulia's Reviews > The Collected Regrets of Clover

"There’s a reason I know this city’s full of lonely people. I’m one of them."

TW: death, grief, depression

My one and only regret was reading this book.

This Rather Random Review™️, as you can already gather, is going to be a unpleasant one, but I felt so disappointed I can’t control myself.

So, The Collected Regrets of Clover is a story about death. It’s the story of Clover, who is a death doula, and her quiet, lonely world. It’s a world full of grief and confessions, pieces of advice and regrets left by the dying… and very little else. Clover is a bit of a loner, who would rather blend in the background than do anything that could catch anyone’s attention.

The synopsis of this book really caught my attention but unfortunately the book did not deliver at all, for as much as I am concerned. And that was for different reasons.

The one glaring problem was that the story was painfully cliché. The first 20% of the book was somewhat interesting, but the rest was so incredibly uninspiring and, quite honestly, banale. The Collected Regrets of Clover followed an annoyingly predictable plot and needless to say, I was not a fan.

Another aspect that bothered me was how poor the characterization was. Clover was the only one who actually had a personality and was close to being three dimensional. All the other characters were present simply to push the story and Clover forward and were as deep as a puddle. They served one purpose and one purpose only (allow the main character to grow) and it was rather disappointing to read and witness.

Moreover, two another aspects that confused me and made for a lackluster reading experience were the inconsistency regarding one character’s beliefs ((view spoiler)[ Claudia, Sebastian’s grandmother, once mentioned that, unwillingly, she resented her son because she had to stop working, but she expressed her desire to have a kid twice throughout the book. So… make it make sense, please? If Claudia wanted a kid, and knew that having a kid was going to put a stop to her career, why is she resenting her son…? Maybe I’m just too much of a silly goose to understand (hide spoiler)]) and the insta-love present in the story.

The Collected Regrets of Clover was, all in all, a disappointment.
The writing style was fine (nothing special, tbh), but the plot itself was formulaic, and thus incredibly boring and predictable, and the characters massively lacked depth.

"I was still here, still living. But was I just existing out of habit?"