UNTANGLING

Starting at an Ending to Find a Beginning

Emma Grace, Morgan James Publishing (DEC 1) Softcover $16.95 (218pp), 978-1-63195-013-1

Encouraging grace and courage, Untangling is a book for those facing the loss of a relationship.

The book starts by considering the end of love stories: Emma Grace’s, the reader’s––everyone’s, at one time or another. Though such moments can feel like dead ends, for Grace, who admits to being bad a breakups, they also represent potential far beyond the moment. Acknowledging that ended relationships can have drastic effects on a person’s sense of self, her book asserts that, nonetheless, a sense of self is just what people need to move forward. It shares ways to recognize and repair one’s self, both for one’s own benefit and for the benefit of one’s future relationships.

Relative to all sorts of romantic relationships, from casual connections to marriage and everything in between, the book’s only prerequisite is having loved and experienced the bewilderment of loss. Through personal stories and analyses of internal narratives that drive behavior, its chapters unpack relationship truisms, such as that relationships end for a reason, and common fears, including of remaining alone forever. The approach is both about taking responsibility and letting go of control, and the work invites introspection about what went wrong without self-deprecation or overanalysis.

Inviting its audience to grow in trust in themselves, the book promises that every end is attached to a new beginning. Its straight talk, pep talk, and confessional tones make its suggestions about relating to one’s self and others vulnerable, wise, and gracious, while the book’s punchy short paragraphs and fragments emphasize points and keep the work moving.

Though recovering from the end of a relationship is difficult, Untangling shows that it’s worth doing.