Catherine Austen’s first novel takes the form of a grief journal kept by 12-year-old Josh after his mother dies in a freak accident caused by someone putting a garter snake in her car. The mystery of who put the snake there plagues Josh, but it remains secondary to his attempts to cope with his family’s grieving process.

Josh, his father, and his four-year-old brother, Sammy, have all been instructed by a counsellor to keep journals. Josh’s father scribbles in his while hiding in the basement attempting to build a time machine. Sammy fills his with drawings of evil snakes. He also walks everywhere backward (so he can remember people who are leaving him) and is emotionally fixated on a Power Rangers doll. Their weird behaviour drives Josh, who professes to have no religion or faith, to investigate the mourning rituals of different cultures in search of a model he can apply to his family’s suffering.

The educational contrivance of these rituals at times feels shoehorned into the book, but their presence is partly explained by the fact that Josh’s mother was a classics scholar who taught him about such things. More problematic is the use of the journals to tell the story. This approach means that Josh frequently describes what people have said rather than presenting actual dialogue,  lending a monotonous tone to the writing and insulating the reader from the action.

Nonetheless, as Josh struggles to understand his family, moments of great tenderness and emotion emerge, especially in his relationship with his brother. (A scene in which Sammy wants to wear his mother’s housecoat is a touching gem.) The mystery of the snake is eventually solved in a disturbing and unflinching moment, and Josh comes to accept that dealing with loss is a messy, frustrating, and painful matter that cannot be avoided through mere ritual. Grief and mourning, he learns, are not only out of our control, but often require us to surrender control.