This intense and haunting tale examines the lives and emotions of two families living in the small-town South during the early 1960s. When a random car crash on a quiet road kills a young man, the world changes drastically for both his teen bride and the older man who discovered the body. Darlene, the widow, simultaneously refuses to let go of her connection to her beloved new husband and tempestuously asserts her unwillingness to behave like a conventional bereaved spouse by dressing up for the high school dance, driving a noticeable car, and seeking out Clayton, the witness to the corpse.

Meanwhile, Clayton is dealing with his own faltering marriage to Berta Mae, whose dominant and often downright mean mother Aurilla Cutter is filled with terrible secrets from her own youth.

The novel's exploration of grief, love, and secrets in a time that is both recent and long gone resonates well after the last page is reached.

I've finished reading this and I'm still trying to recover from the beautiful writing and storytelling. There is such a grief-stricken feeling evoked from reading the book. Not to mention that the cover is so beautiful to see.

This was a very powerful and thought provoking story and had me on an emotional roller coaster.
Many thanks to Regal House Publishing and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

I requested this book from the cover alone and didn't read the blurb before starting, so had no preconceived ideas before reading.

I found that the first few chapters grabbed me by the throat and made me keep on dreaming. The language evoked the place and time within the first couple of sentences, contrasting the slow lazy pace of that hot day in Southern America with the shock factor of a young man's death.

What follows is a sad tale of opportunities lost and wasted lives. Intergenerational trauma leads to miscommunication and secrets. As a modern reader it was frustrating that no one could speak freely, leading to so much resentment, but typical of the time and place.

I found it difficult at first to keep track of the different characters and was completely confused around why Clayton's narrative was in the first person when no one else's was, but the slow and steady rythem of the narrative made it feel relaxing, even when events were tragic or shocking.

I didn't particularly like or side with any of the characters but this felt important as there were no 'goodies' or 'baddies', just real people to whom life was just happening, rather than two dimensional characters acting a part.

This book was so incredible that I read it in one sitting because I just couldn't put it down. This book puts you through all the emotions under the sun and had me hating Aurilla and then feeling bad for her and almost liking her by the end of the book. Any book with character growth and depth like that is worth its weight in gold.
Thoroughly enjoyed this one, I can't wait to read more from this author!

One town. Multiple generations.
Love. Loss. Secrets, that everyone knows.

This book is compact in its setting, but large in emotional scope.
Fans of unveiled family and community secrets should read this work.

What I liked about this was that it didn’t read like a debut. On the one hand, it’s probably not going to leave a lasting impact on me. It’s a sad story mostly but I didn’t feel any tug on the heartstrings or anything. The characters weren’t bad, there just wasn’t a lot to their personality; it’s like I was only shown one side when clearly there was more, which would be left unexplored. To be honest, this kind of story isn’t new and didn’t offer anything different either; it’s just fine.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the arc!

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.


This is a multigenerational story about grief.
The plot of the story is very character driven.

"Nobody dies alone, that's what I know. The dead forgive and they come for their own."

Loving the Dead and Gone is an incredibly emotional journey that explores grief in many different forms. Unfortunately, the narrative did not resonate with me. This is probably on me - I'm in a bit of a reading slump these days, and Loving the Dead and Gone is outside my go-to slump-busting genres.

I didn't connect with any of the characters, and they all started to blend together. They're all so passive - almost anything could happen to them, and they would just let it happen.

Aurilla, in particular, was the most confusing character. It felt like her base personality changed every chapter, and there was no consistent thread. She was brash and bold in some chapters, taking shit from no one. In others, she was a doormat, letting everyone walk all over her. Sometimes she was sly and sneaky; others, she was outright mean.

Darlene was more believable. She's so young, with a massive life change - yeah, she's going to go off the rails a little bit. It probably goes on a bit longer than it should, especially considering we're privy to her private thoughts, and she's well over her little rebellion ages before making a change. I liked her parts the best - the rigid conformity of this small town was in desperate need of a young woman making her own rules.

Berta Mae was almost non-existent; she had very few chapters, and I think I found her as difficult as Aurilla did. Nothing is good enough, and everything is a problem. The most touching moments were her memories of her grandmother, but otherwise, I had very little interest in or patience with her. Similarly, Clayton was almost a non-entity. He was wishy-washy, his thoughts going in one direction while his actions went in another. As a result, he contributed very little to the story.

My instinct is to give this two stars. However, because I'm in a slump, I know I wasn't attentive enough to pick up the nuanced parts of this very character-driven story, so I'm bumping it up to three.

This is a powerful story told in a captivating way, the writing in this book is excellent.
This is a story about grief and secrets and how these things effect people over time.

This book will put you thru the ringer emotionally but it's well worth it imo

I truly loved this book! The writing was wonderful, it drew me in very slowly and let me know each character on their own and I grew to like them more and more. They will stay with me for a long time. The book covers multiple generations in different families, some secrets are hidden and some truths about others discovered. The writing is so good I didn't want it to end and I savored the last few pages. I'm so glad it was recommended to me and I will recommend it to others as I'm sure it will be enjoyed by others as much as I have enjoyed it.

A beautiful book set in 1960s rural America. 17 year old Darlene is grieving the death of her husband, and sees him in an older man, Clayton. We also follow the lives and histories of Clayton‘s wife, Berta Mae and her mother Aurilla.

It takes a little while to get used to the changing points of view, but the writing is wonderfully poetic. It‘s a kind-of-slow book, a meditation on grief, love and loss.

Check triggers***

Read this book if you like: Multiple POV, stories of grief, powerful stories, strong characters

A freak car crash in 1960s rural North Carolina is the root of this story. For forty years Aurilla Cutter has hidden secrets that have turned her mean. A fatal accident becomes the catalyst for the release of the passions, needs, and hurts in everyone affected by her hidden past.

Darlene, a seventeen-year-old widow, struggles with her husband's death. Soon loss and death work their magic, drawing Darlene into an unlikely affair that threatens to upend Aurilla’s family, and sets loose Aurilla’s own memories of longing and infidelity.

This book is good. The writing was so beautifully done. It's almost poetic. This is a heavy story about grief and secrets. It did confuse me a bit at times with the POVs. The characters were also very emotional but some fell for me. Many of them were unlikeable (Darlene, Clayton, etc). I loved the story but it was just lacking in some places. I do recommend this book!

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and Regal House Publishing for the gifted book!

Set in 1925 and 1963, this beautifully written novel explores loss in a way that is powerful and at times heart-rending.

In rural North Carolina a young man died when he was rear-ended by another vehicle. Only nineteen years of age, and a newlywed, he left behind a great love in his wife Darlene. This tragedy acts as a catalyst for the upheaval of many lives.

In addition to the main themes of loss, grief, and bereavement, this beautifully scripted, expressive novel also eloquently explores the complicated love-hate relationships between mothers and daughters, and of loveless, cold marriages held together only by responsibility and commitment.

Literary fiction at its finest which explores emotions and universal truths in the guise of telling the story of two very different women.  Highly, highly recommended!

This was such a powerful and mesmerising story. It is a story about grief and screts and the effect they have on life. It made me feel a lot of different emotions for sure. Very powerful story indeed.

Searing, touching, heartfelt. This is a beautiful novel, and captivating treatise on grief. Literary and transportive. Just wonderful.

If you're looking for a touching novel with a powerful story, I highly recommend this one. I have a weird tendency of reading books without going through their summaries. so let's just say I was absolutely delighted and surprised by Loving the Dead and Gone. Judith Turner-Yamamoto's style is absolutely beautiful. This is the kind of story you just can't put down, but it will definitely get you. This is a novel about grief, the process of loosing someone and how it transforms lives. If you're not mentally in a place for a story about grief, I would recommend waiting a little bit.

I will definitely read more from this author.

This was a decent story, kept me wanting to read more, but I didn't like the different chapter jumps all the time, just knocked me off kilter and often would have to go back a little to remember what the other characters were about. Writing was good though and had a really touching story.
Recommended for people who like the change of pace and fast chapters.

Loving the dead and gone by Judith Turner-Yamamoto

This was an ARC gifted to me by Netgallery.

I was initially drawn in by the description, but that alone didn't prepare for how beautifully haunting this book is.
Set in the 1960's, you would be forgiven thinking it was an even earlier time, where tradition is still being held steadfast.
This book is multiple POV. I personally had no issues getting into each character, but I appreciate it isn't always easy to do so. But I felt this was one of the easier books for me to do so. Perhaps it was how wonderfully it was all written from the first page, even though it is a tragic event that starts the book.
Grief is throughout the book, and it is illustrated in ways that lead people to do or make certain choices.
Out of all the characters, Aurilla was the one who had me sitting here, enraged at her, then enraged for her. I didn't expect to find myself as sympathetic towards her as I ultimately did. That isn't to say I particularly liked her, but I understood her far more as a result.
Darlene, as a young widow, is at odds with her family on 'how' someone should grieve. This led her into an affair that wasn't romanticised, yet the way it was written made perfect sense within the context.
These are just two of the multiple characters we learn about, but for me stood out the most.

Throughout Judith Turner-Yamamoto amazing prose was undeniable. How her imagery brought the book to life on every page. So many lines stood out for me as I read.

This book is a thing of beauty. Even if this isn't perhaps your usual genre, I'd highly recommend it.

5/5 stars 🌟 was an easy choice for me to make.

I found this one a little bit confusing getting into for the first few chapters, mostly due to the changing POVs; when it was just between Darlene, Berta Mae and Clayton before the first Aurilla chapter I didn't feel they had so much of a distinct voice separating the three, but only in the beginning of the novel

After the slower start however, once we reached Aurilla's first chapter, I quickly started to become absolutely hooked on Turner-Yamomoto's incredibly atmospheric and heart wrenching accounts of lives that were clearly hanging on by threads of normalcy and obligation that coloured so many relationships during that era (as is especially apparent with Aurilla and Joe). I found this to be an unexpectedly emotional read, especially through the lens of Darlene and navigating loss so profound while surrounded by family who's approach to grief was so opposite to her own.

I'll admit I found the relationship Darlene enters afterwards to be pretty disgusting, but Turner-Yamomoto doesn't romanticise it at all, instead gracefully painting a picture of the ways grief makes us do things that make no logical sense outside of the context of immense grief and loss and I was thankful for her ending. This perfectly balanced with the other main story of Aurilla, and the way her own grief narrated her story throughout her life.

Overall, this was a beautiful and bittersweet portrayal of life in a world tinged by so much sadness, and I'd happily recommend this!