Kelly Thompson and her older sister Meghan are proof that sisters aren't always friends. Growing up in a military family, they were close despite being complete opposites. As a teen Meghan suffers from a cocaine and opioid addiction which tears apart their relationship. Once Meghan becomes a mother and Kelly and her reconnect, they start to rebuild their relationship. With a shocking diagnosis on a day that should be one for celebration, Kelly and Meghan decide to make the most of the time that they have.

I cried, I laughed. I felt hopeful, I felt broken. This book is devastating, heartbreaking and heartwarming all at once. The relationship between sisters is a special one (I have 2!). I really admire Kelly's strength in her relationship with her sister, as well as the strength that would have been required to write this book. It is hard to keep judgment out of action and Kelly did exactly that. She supported her sister despite all the struggles they had faced and despite all of her misgivings. Knowing that it's non-fiction made it harder because I could imagine it all so vividly. This is also of course due to the beautiful, well thought out way that it is written.

Thank you to Penguin Random House Canada for my review copy.

I picked up this book because it discusses loving a family member with substance use disorder, something I have really been struggling with lately. This is indeed a topic that is covered, but the book gave me so much more. It is familiar and absorbing, a powerful memoir that lays bare the realities and emotions of family life during some of their most painful and private struggles. Alcoholism, domestic abuse, cancer, opioid addiction, MS, and marriage, all tied up in the bonds between parents and daughters, and of sisters to each other. Thank you Kelly, for telling your story. I found it very touching, authentic, and invaluable. I will never forget Meggie. I laughed and then cried so hard it soaked my pillow and I had to flip it over.

This one's been on my list for awhile. I had to be prepared to read it. Having had stage 4 cancer myself it hits close to home.
This book is written with such heart and love and felt the friendship and love between the sisters. Definitely a book hangover. And got a good cry it. Thanks to the author for sharing their story I'm sure it was hard to write I hope it gave you some peace to share the story even the bad parts.

Thanks to the author, the publisher and NetGalley for an early release of this book.

First of all I want to say thank you for providing me with a copy of this book.

I had to sit with it for a little while before writing a review. It hit close to home for me. I am from Ontario, a military background and cancer runs in my family. This story was raw and emotional and laid everything bare. I felt like I was there watching the events unfold, hoping for a different outcome. I don't think there are words to do this book justice. I rarely cry when reading but this one got me. I appreciated the honesty and thoroughness of the story. I was unable to put it down and read through in one sitting.

I cannot imagine how challenging this was to write, but I am so grateful to have read it. It makes you want to hold your family a little tighter.

Incredible read and I hope this author continues to write and share her journey.

An incredibly moving story of the turmoiltuos relationship between two sisters. It will have you laughing and then with tears pouring down your face. I have never had a book affect me this way. It is raw and real in dealing with how cancer affects the entire family. Thompson did an incredible job relaying her feelings to sand in turn us feeling them to our core. I could not put this book down. Have the Kleenex ready.

A moving Canadian memoir.
Sisterhood at its most forgiving and loving.
A family torn by addiction, filled hurt anger and forgiveness.
I’ve never read a book that brought me tears .. i sobbed.
Hug your loved ones!

Still, I Cannot Save You, is a heartwarming and heartbreaking story of two sisters and their fight to keep their relationship afloat. Told by the author, the love for her older sister is apparent from childhood, and it only grows more and more as the time passes. Having different personalities, their paths separate for many years, but as circumstances bring them together, their lives, goals and dreams become one. Kelly tells the story as she lived it, not leaving out any of the "dirty details". Hard to read at times, this is a story that will make you call your sister to tell her you love her and will stay with you for days.

Thank you Kelly S. Thompson, Penguin Random House Canada, McClelland & Stewart and NetGalley for allowing me to read this ARC e-book. All I can say is WOW… What an absolutely heartbreaking and beautiful story. For anyone who has a family member who is suffering from addiction of any kind this truly hits home. I don’t have any words to describe how beautifully written this was. To make the reader feel and understand every emotion that she felt was so perfect.

Still I Cannot Save You is heartbreaking and beautiful. 🥺❤️ I laughed, I cried, I reflected on my own relationships with my sisters. Still, I Cannot Save You is an emotional memoir about “sisterhood, love and letting go.” Kelly’s relationship with her older sister Meghan has always been complicated. Meghan spent a good portion of her adult years as a drug addict, losing the trust and respect of her family. When Megan becomes a mother they finally begin to rebuild their fragile relationship. A tragic turn of events leads them closer together as they navigate the uncertainty of a cancer diagnosis. “Still, I Cannot Save You is a story about addiction, abuse and tragedy, but above all, it is a powerful portrait of an enduring love between sisters.”

I have so much to say about this book and yet nothing because it should speak for itself. I thought it was brave, open and raw.

The chapters are told almost like a snapshot in time; photographs that rejig the memory; moments that stand out in one's backward look into the past. It's the only way the author could have encapsulated this many years and speak to the journey of sisterhood that she experienced.

There were touching moments between sisters and then the fraught instability of family.
There's also spousal abuse, addiction and mental health.

But there's love and friendship and the brave peeling back of emotions following two sisters who begin and end their relationship with a cancer diagnosis. There's forgiveness and kindness but with very real honest feelings of a family struggling.

There was one passage that had me pause and it wasn't for anything dramatic but rather a word: gemcitabine. Most wont know what that is actually but it had me pause and put down the book as a tsunami of emotions came back to me and watching my MIL have this same chemo drug put into her system. It was the snapshot of one word that encapsulated a year of appointments and illness with me documenting it down so that one day her youngest child would have the information if she chose to read it.

I don't rate memoirs normally but I feel like this book needs to be read for multiple reasons: starting with the empathy and relatability of a family. Nonfiction may not be everyone's first choice of books but they are pure empathy builders. And I highly recommend this one.

I’ve been reading some great memoirs lately and this was no exception. This beautifully written memoir details the relationship Kelly has with her sister, Meghan, while they battle illness, violence, addiction and tragedy. This story was utterly heartbreaking but I couldn’t put it down. It never felt rushed nor did any part feel overwritten; it was all chalked full of love. Just be prepared to be reading the last half of the book through your tears.

I’m so glad I had the pleasure of reading this and encourage everyone to pick this up on February 14th!

Thank you to NetGallery, Penguin Random House Canada and Kelly S. Thompson for this eARC!

I just finished reading this beautiful book. You did your sister proud , I’m sure she is looking down and smiling on you knowing you wrote this book about your relationship and her life with even all the ugly parts. May have cried. Thanks for sharing your journey. This book is a raw look into the relationship of two sisters who between the two battle cancer, drug addiction, abuse, depression but in the end still look out for one.

I voluntarily received an advanced copy from NetGalley and all opinions are my own.

(4.5 stars)
Thompson wrote a beautifully raw and heartbreaking memoir about her sister. While I anticipated the story to have much more to do with her sister's addiction, it primarily focused on her battle with cancer. I think this distinction is important to make when deciding to take on this book, as it will leave you heartbroken. Thompson did such a great job telling such a deeply personal and emotional story with just enough restraint. I’m sure it was done out of respect for other family members, and especially her children, and I admire her for it. This story was full of love, sacrifice, frustration, and suffering. It had me in tears imagining myself in the role of sister, mother, or fighter. As a Canadian living in the GTA I enjoyed the fact that I knew the places she referenced. I had half a mind to drive up to Barrie and find a certain someone from her life and give them a piece of my mind… This beautifully written book brought me to tears, and I can only imagine would have made her sister very proud.

This book comes out February 14th, 2023, so please get your copy there and support this Canadian women!

Thank you to Penguin Random House Canada, NetGalley, and Kelly S. Thompson for this ARC.

What a devastatingly beautiful page-turning memoir, As an older sister and mom to two sisters, I found Kelly’s words were honest, funny and a legacy for Megan‘s children. I shed tears when reading the hard parts. I wish I had known my mom’s stories before she died of breast cancer when I was ten years old. Thank you, Kelly, for sharing all your stages of grief, and the love letter to you and your sister gave me insight into what my grandparents might’ve gone through when my mom died.

I just want to say OMG!!! This story broken me into a millions of tiny pieces. I thought I was going crazy. My emotions were allover the place. I would laugh, cry, smile and become angry and pissed off with a certain character. As a Canadian, I understood were the events in the story that took place. This story was out of my genre, but I thought this year I would change my genre of books. I am so glad I did. This memoir is my life but different characters. Abusive ex- husband with Sarcoma cancer, my daughter with PCOS, Myself with MS and cancer. I would like to thank the Publisher, Author, and NetGalley for the advance readers copy of this memoir. It was a privilege to read such a beautiful story for an honest review. This story is about the relationship between Kelly and her older sister Meghan. Their relationship goes through addiction, abuse and illness. Can these two sisters make it threw all of this? I suggest you reading this book to find out, you will not regret it.

Genres
Nonfiction
Biography Memoir
288 pages, Paperback

Expected publication February 14, 2023

✨REVIEW - Still, I Cannot Save You by Kelly S Thompson✨

Keep your eyes open for this excellent upcoming Memoir, coming out Feb 14!

There is something so special to me about memoirs. We all are fighting battles that so many don’t know about. When we are feeling lonely, misunderstood or lost, memoirs bring us healing through relatability and connection. Grateful for those who have the courage to be so vulnerable and put their hardest life chapters out there for us to read!

Still, I Cannot Save You tells the gripping true and recent story of family violence, cancer, grief & loss, addiction. While these are all very sad themes, it also was full of connection and love. There is so much relatability and humanity in here, you will feel connected to Kelly and her family too!

I haven’t cried from a book in two years (Crying in H Mart, ironically also about cancer and family ties 😅…maybe a trigger point for me 🤔) and this one had be SOBBING at parts.

Would I recommend? YES
Will you feel a lot of feelings? YES
Worth it? COMPLETELY

Thank you @netgalley @mcclellandstewart for this ARC, and extra thank you to @kellysthompsonwriter for putting this book out to the world! I will feel impacted a long time after reading this one.

This book is so good and so so sad. What a tragedy this family had to go through with Meghan going through a deadly fight with childhood cancer, surviving, only to fall into drug addiction. I can't imagine the heartbreak Kelly went through watching her sister become someone she didn't know and couldn't relate to anymore. As Meghan cleans her life up, And then to have to suffer through the worst tragedy of all. I felt s much compassion for Kelly as she did things for her sister that no one should be asked to do for a family member.

I'd recommend this book to anyone.

It might seem to be weird that Still, I Cannot Save You is a book being released on Valentine’s Day 2023. After all, even though this is a book about the bond between two sisters, that bond is not necessarily, on the surface, a very loving one. Anyone who has siblings can probably relate to the fact that life growing up with them is not always sunshine, unicorns, and rainbows. This is true of the Thompson household. Separated by three years, the elder daughter Meghan decides to crash a car at the age of 16 while wearing the favourite shirt of her younger sister (who’s the author of this tale), which then gets torn up by first responders attending to the accident. That’s just one of the litany of offenses between the two. In their 20s, Meghan shoplifts, is a drug addict, and nearly winds up in jail, the latter being thanks to her sister — who testifies against her. Thus, if this is a “love” story, it is one of tough love and seemingly — at least, at first — a lack of compassion. The situation does eventually stabilize, but not before Meghan finds herself in an abusive marital relationship with her husband, who may suffer from a mental illness, and then — as a childhood survivor of kidney cancer — suddenly gets a diagnosis in her mid-30s that turns everyone’s lives upside down.

I don’t think I’m spoiling the book to say that this is a tragedy. The book’s title, after all, alludes to the ending and the subtitle uses the words “letting go,” which I’m sure you can use your imagination to decode what that actually might mean. (Despite that, I’m trying to be somewhat vague as the promotional materials I’ve read online don’t refer to the book’s outcome.) This is a five-hanky weepie written by a woman for other women who have experienced trauma in their families. But, as a male, I must confess that I didn’t have a dry eye by this memoir’s end — I wasn’t crying, but I had watery eyes. (So, if anyone needs confirmation that I have a feminine side, let that be it.) This is an expertly weaved and written story, even if I did find the beginning to be a bit patchy and unusual for introducing a character in Meghan who seems, at first blush, to be completely unlovable before quickly moving on to a place where she is loved by her family — despite her imperfections. Still, I Cannot Save You is a book best read by women who have something of a broken relationship with their sisters. And, if Margaret Atwood is right to suggest that every Canadian book is about survival and victimhood (as I understand her work), then this is a very Canadian book.

I’m actually of a couple of minds about the narrator, though. Without meaning to sound obnoxious or rude, especially because this is a “true story” about real people (and I’m not intending on getting sued here), Kelly does sometimes come across a little bit as a know-it-all, “I told you so” type of character in her narration. Perhaps some of this is to realizations that come when looking at things using hindsight, but her tone can be a little grating to the reader at first. However, in this way, she also is being unflinchingly honest and emotionally raw in how she frames and tells her story. She is also candid about her struggles with depression and various bodily ailments throughout the book which, in turn, may affect her self-assessment and portrayal.

Set in pre-pandemic times, Still, I Cannot Save You is the product of a lot of inner reflection on family relationships and certain dynamics within those relationships. Thus, one can look at the book in a couple of different and fascinating ways. It works as a straight-up memoir between women, which would appeal to every hot-blooded female on the planet (well, those with an affinity for all things Canadian) and it also works as something of an examination of the dynamics of violence against women. It also says a little bit about the nature of narcotics addiction, but I did wish this aspect was mined a little more deeply. Aside from being told that Meg suffers from cocaine and opioid addiction, we don’t see the impact of that aside from criminal behaviour, nor do we get any insight into the recovery process when Meghan stopped the abuse. I guess this is to be somewhat protective of someone’s privacy and legacy.

That being said, this must have been a draining and difficult book to write because of its deeply personal nature and the fact that, no matter what or how unlikable her sister might have been from time to time, there was also a bond between them, and that bond was of love and compassion as it would turn out. Did I agree with every choice that either of the main characters of this tale makes? Of course not. To that end, Still, I Cannot Save You is a memoir of what it means to be human, if not a woman. I suppose it could also be said that this is a book about what it is like to be a flawed individual. We’re not perfect, we all make mistakes — and sometimes those mistakes are grievous. However, this is a book that shows the possibility of redemption and the healing salvation from one’s family so long as one’s behaviour is no longer violent or criminal. This is a challenging and emotionally disturbing memoir to sit through, but for those who don’t view the world through the lenses of a Pollyanna, then Still, I Cannot Save You is a welcome addition to the family of books about dealing with diseases of a varying sort. And, yes, if you’re anything like me and have something of a heart, you may just very well see a tear dribble down your face as you read the mournful conclusion to this testimony of a sometimes-troubled sisterhood.

A story about the bonds of family in times of need, love, and grief dispite complicated sibling relationships. I didn't know this was a Canadian author before reading, so imagine my surprise when the first location was a mall 20 mins. from my house. I definitely did a double take!

Well written vulnerable and heartfelt.. "Even the ugly parts"... I'll definitely look for more from this author.

Thank you to Kelly S. Thompson, Netgalley and Penguin Random House Canada for the ARC.

It is true what they say about Kelly S. Thompson she is a master storyteller. She lets readers into her life with her latest memoir Still, I Cannot Save You. This is a raw and real story about family relationships, they are flawed, they are troubled, and Thompson does not hold back on how she feels. She examines the bond of sisterhood; you do to have to have a sister to enjoy this book. This is a story about acceptance, forgiveness and love.