While in her 70s, Susannah Kennedy's mother suicided, leaving the author hurt, confused, and alone. But Kennedy always found her mother to be an enigma, and her memoir is an attempt to understand her and their fraught relationship better. Kennedy's mother is a fascinating woman with a complicated story. She is both inspiring and cruel, insightful and cold.. Kennedy goes deep and learns a lot, and yet, in many ways, her mother remains mystifying.

Thank you to NetGalley and Syblline Press for the eARC.

This book was hard to put down. I really enjoyed my time with it and found myself related to Susannah Kennedy's characters. it is certainly one I won't forget.

What a read. So much to take in.
Thanks to author, publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book. While I got the book for free it had no bearing on the rating I gave it.

As an avid reader of non-fiction I found the premise of the story to be very compelling: a daughter getting to know her mother better after death through her diaries. I was not prepared for how insane the mother in this story is. The author uncovers some deeply hidden secrets about her family that are shocking (both to her and me as the reader). I'm glad I read the book, and have told a few people about stories from it, but it is rather bleak. There's no happy ending here. This is the risk you take when reading non-fiction.....it's not always pretty. It's definitely an interesting read and is very well written. Frankly, I'm not sure it was healthy for this author to read her mother's diaries. You need to be prepared for this one.

I love this book and Sibylline Press. We are the best. Don't use this review it's just filler text because I wanted to increase our star ratings on Netgalley.

Reading Jane
A Daughter's Memoir
by Susannah Kennedy
Pub Date 05 Sep 2023 | Archive Date 04 Sep 2023
Sibylline Press
Biographies & Memoirs| Nonfiction \(Adult\)| Parenting & Families


Netgalley and Sibylline Press have provided me with a copy of Reading Jane for review:

Initially, I want to say that this was a very impactful book, because it dealt with a very difficult subject, suicide, and reminded me how suicide affects those who are left behind.


In the world's eyes, Jane is an opinionated, inner-city teacher and public activist, a lover of Italy, proud and successful, whose life narrative is carefully constructed. Susannah is her beautiful only child, her intended protege.


Susannah's childhood is chronicled by Jane once a day. During those magnetic twosome years, "Mommy, can I read your diaries?" was a common question. After saying "Some day," Jane changes it to "When you're the age I was when I wrote them," then "Maybe," then "No, probably not." 


The diaries recede. Susannah grows up. Jane, who is 75 years old and fit, decides to commit suicide, insisting it will be better for everyone this way. That controlling assessment is wrong from the moment Susannah hears the news and has to identify the body. 





She actively resists reading the 45 years of diaries her mother left behind in order to resist the control imposed by her mother's seductive tale. It's like unlatching Pandora's Box when she finally begins to "read" Jane. 


For a year, Susannah reads, comparing what she remembers with the strange pull of her mother's public tale. Each memory encased in her body is accompanied by physical symptoms. Then she uncovers yet another secret, one that forever changes her mother. 



In the end, Susannah is able to separate, heal, and embrace her own story.


I give Reading Jane five out of five stars!

Happy Reading!

One’s relationship with his/her parent will resound all throughout life. This memoir, Reading Jane, by Susannah Kennedy explores just that, the memories, effect, and trauma of a relationship between a child and her mother. Interestingly enough, Ms. Kennedy explores this relationship through the reading of her mother’s journals. Susannah’s mother has always indicated that she would not leave this life by her own hand, prior to the age of 75. At the age of 75, Jane (Susannah’s mother), is successful at committing suicide and this is how Susannah comes into possession of the journals, spanning over 45 years. Reading these journals uncovers a lot of feelings and thoughts for Susannah. Exploration of her mother’s life allows Susannah to remember and explain events in her own life, as her views at times, and remembrances differ from that of her mother’s. While her relationship with her mother was fraught with pain, the reading of her mother’s journals allows Susannah to gain a greater understanding of her mother and her personality. The writing was easy to read and the book flowed. I found myself invested in the characters and events. My heart ached for the relationship that Susannah did have for her mother and the loss of the one that she yearned for. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance review copy in exchange for my honest review.

Susannah Kennedy has a doctorate in social anthropology. At times, while reading her memoir, it felt as if she were approached her mother and their relationship as a case study in human behavior. This is not a criticism. It is to say that Kennedy’s education and training come through on the page. In some ways, she is objective in her approach. But in other ways, readers get the sense that she yearns to understand herself better through knowing her mother and her family.

In Reading Jane, Susannah Kennedy uses her mother’s diaries to guide her through exploration of her mother’s life. Kennedy opens her memoir with a remembering of her mother’s ceremonial journal writing episodes. As a child, she had wanted to read her mother’s diaries, but Jane understandably said no. It might have been less important if Jane had been more open and honest with her daughter throughout her life. But Jane was an enigma until after her death, when these forbidden-to-read diaries served as an access point into Jane’s mind.

In the next chapter, the narrator is forced to identify her mother’s body at the medical examiner’s office after her mother has committed suicide. Kennedy is Jane’s only child, and the burden and trauma are hers alone. The rest of the book is a journey through Kennedy’s attempt to understand why Jane chose to take her own life, why Jane chose to tell Kennedy about it before doing it, and why Jane was the way she was.

In exploring her mother, Kennedy also learns about herself. Moments of mirroring feel most haunting. The last time she saw her mother, Kennedy and her children were visiting her in California. Kennedy sensed her mother’s unrest, but pretended everything was okay, much like her own mother had done at different times in her own childhood.

After her mother dies, Kennedy reads the diaries in an effort to make sense of her mother’s behavior and choices. Her planned suicide is of course sad and shocking, but Kennedy’s re-remembering of her own childhood and her discovery of her mother’s childhood loss and trauma is perhaps sadder. It’s a story of what was never said, never shared and never known. From there it becomes Kennedy's story to write.

It is painful to witness someone's pain. It is joyful to witness someone’s self-discovery. In that way, it was both painful and joyful to read Kennedy’s words.

This memoir comes from a sad but fascinating conundrum Susannah Kennedy is faced with after her mother's death by suicide: if someone leaves you their diaries, what should you do with them? In this case, Kennedy's awareness that her mother probably wanted her to 'tell her story' does not make this any easier.

This book is just as much about the author working through her perceptions of herself, her mother, and her family as it is about her mother and why she was determined not to live beyond 75 years of age. Each discovery Kennedy makes about her mother reverberates through time, helping her to understand interactions with her mother that seemed to make no sense at the time, and the many disconnects between the inner world her mother tried to conceal and the polished woman presented to an outside world.

But the key question of why Kennedy's mother was so difficult and defiant is unanswerable - that is what haunts many people who have a family member who freezes them out for long periods of time, or a parent who insists that everyone else will be happier and better off once they are gone. While it may be a difficult read at times, I'd recommend this to anyone who recognises this kind of family dynamic, or is just interested in the deep secrets families can keep and what it means when someone starts unlocking them.

Reading Jane is one of those books that I will remember for a long time. I thought Kennedy did an amazing job of telling the story of her relationship with her mom while she was alive and after her death. The writing was excellent and flowed well. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. Five stars.