Author Jenn K. Lee recently released her powerful memoir about family and healing, Grieving in Dreams: Finding Peace After Losing My Sister. Lee’s work is both a tribute to her late sister and an exploration of how her dreams have shaped her perspectives on life, love, and the complex nature of moving on.

After losing her sister in the summer of 2019, Lee began dreaming about her sister’s life at various stages. She viewed the dreams as an unintentional avenue to acceptance, helping her to process her grief. In Grieving in Dreams, Lee includes descriptions of over 75 dreams taken from her dream journal. She examines the complicated feelings associated with her sister’s death and considers how a miscarriage and the COVID-19 pandemic affected her perceptions of grief in surprisingly positive ways.

Grieving in Dreams is an essential read for anyone who is grieving the loss of a loved one, especially a sibling. Lee’s willingness to embrace and appreciate the phenomenon of grief dreaming is a validating addition to the existing body of literature about the ways in which mourners can find peace. Research on grief dreams is still limited, making Grieving in Dreams an important real-life glimpse into the experiences of a single person.

Lee emphasizes that people should consider their own unique needs, coping strategies, and personal circumstances while recovering from the loss of a loved one. Although dreams are often overlooked as a method to navigate grief, Grieving in Dreams highlights the potential benefits of pursuing nontraditional paths to healing.

With a message of tailoring grief to fit each person, Lee’s work is particularly timely after a period of global upset during the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead of providing a step-by-step roadmap to transitioning out of mourning, Grieving in Dreams is simply Lee sharing her personal story in the hopes that it will inspire others and show them that the journey to recovery can be whatever you make it.

Interested readers can search for Grieving in Dreams: Finding Peace After Losing My Sister on Amazon.com and follow its dedicated Instagram account @grievingindreams. Jenn K. Lee is a writer and digital artist. Grieving in Dreams: Finding Peace After Losing My Sister is her first published book. Lee lives and writes in Hawaii with her husband and their two children.