Cleo Dang Would Rather Be Dead
-------------------------------------
Author: Mai Nguyen
Published: 2026
Genre: ContemporaryFiction
-------------------------------------
IBC Editorial Rating: 4/5
This book is handpicked by the IBC Editorial Team. If you are an author, publisher, or reader and would like to have a book reviewed by IBC, you may reach us at editorial@indianbookclub.com — we’ll be happy to review it.
-------------------------------------
Editorial Review:
All Cleo Dang has ever wanted is to be a mother, and the day she learns she is pregnant is the happiest of her life, made even sweeter by the news that her best friend Paloma is expecting too. The two women share their pregnancies, certain of the joy waiting on the other side. But when both go into labor on the same day, only one comes home with a baby. What follows is Cleo's unflinching journey through a grief so total it reshapes everything she knows about herself, including her closest friendship. When she finds unexpected solace working at a funeral home, surrounded by strangers carrying their own losses, Cleo begins to discover that honoring the dead might be the very thing that teaches her how to live again. Darkly funny and deeply tender, this story explores grief's long, unpredictable shape.
-------------------------------------
Book Summary:
Cleo Dang has spent her whole life wanting to be a mother, and discovering she is pregnant at the same time as her best friend Paloma feels like a gift neither of them could have planned. The two women move through their pregnancies together, sharing the particular joy of anticipating motherhood side by side. But when they both go into labor, the outcome for each of them could not be more different. Paloma returns home with her baby. Cleo does not. What follows is an unvarnished portrait of a woman undone by grief. Cleo withdraws from nearly everyone in her life, unable to bear the presence of Paloma, whose new motherhood is a constant, painful reminder of what she lost. Unable to continue in her demanding career as an actuary, Cleo eventually finds herself, almost by accident, working at a funeral home, surrounded daily by strangers navigating their own losses. In this unlikely setting, Cleo begins, slowly and imperfectly, to reckon with her grief rather than run from it. Through the people who pass through the funeral home's doors, each carrying their own private sorrow, Cleo starts to rebuild a relationship with loss that does not require her to pretend it is over. Nguyen traces this process with real honesty, refusing to rush Cleo toward easy healing, and instead letting her grief shift and change shape as she slowly finds her way back toward life.
-------------------------------------
Key Takeaways:
- “Grief as a singular, unrepeatable experience”: While the pain of losing a child is something many parents share, Nguyen is careful to show that the way Cleo carries hers is entirely her own. The novel resists offering a universal roadmap for mourning, instead honoring how deeply personal and specific grief actually is. - “Friendship strained by unequal loss”: Cleo's relationship with Paloma, once effortless, becomes nearly impossible to sustain once one friend is grieving and the other is thriving in new motherhood. Nguyen handles this rupture with real compassion for both women, refusing to villainize either side of an impossible situation. - “Honoring death as a path back to life”: Cleo's work at the funeral home becomes the novel's central irony and its emotional engine, suggesting that proximity to others' grief can be exactly what teaches someone how to carry their own. The novel finds real tenderness in this unlikely setting. - “Community as the antidote to isolation”: Throughout the novel, the people who treat Cleo with patience and empathy, even in her most withdrawn moments, become essential to her slow healing. Nguyen suggests that grief, while deeply personal, is never meant to be carried entirely alone. - “Humor as a companion to sorrow, not a contradiction of it”: Despite its heavy subject matter, the novel finds genuine moments of dark humor and warmth throughout Cleo's journey. Nguyen treats laughter and grief as compatible rather than opposing forces, reflecting how real mourning often holds both at once.
-------------------------------------
Iconic Lines, Scenes & Characters:
- Cleo Dang. Raw, flawed, and utterly human in her grief, Cleo's journey never asks to be relatable so much as understood. Her withdrawal from the people who love her feels painfully real, and her slow return to connection carries genuine emotional weight. - The funeral home. An unexpected setting for healing, the funeral home becomes the novel's most quietly powerful device, filled with grieving strangers who unknowingly help Cleo process her own loss. Its ordinariness makes the tenderness that unfolds there feel all the more affecting. - Cleo and Paloma's friendship. The strain between Cleo and her best friend, now living the motherhood Cleo lost, gives the novel some of its most emotionally complicated moments. Neither woman is at fault, which makes their fractured closeness all the more heartbreaking to witness. - The revolving door of the bereaved. The various mourners Cleo encounters through her work each bring their own private sorrow into her orbit, collectively reshaping how she understands grief itself. Their presence widens the novel's emotional scope well beyond Cleo's individual loss.
-------------------------------------
Who Should Read This:
Readers who appreciate raw, unflinching portrayals of grief and who are in a place to engage with that subject matter will find this novel to be an honest and ultimately hopeful companion. Nguyen never rushes Cleo's healing, allowing the story real emotional integrity. Anyone interested in stories about friendship strained and reshaped by loss will connect with the complicated, deeply human dynamic between Cleo and Paloma, handled with compassion for both women. Fans of character-driven contemporary fiction that finds warmth and even humor within heavy subject matter will appreciate how Nguyen balances devastating loss with genuine moments of connection and levity. A note for readers: this novel centers on the loss of a newborn and carries a significant grief content warning throughout. Readers sensitive to this subject matter should approach with care, though those who do may find it an especially meaningful read.
************************
IBC Editorial Note:
This review is part of the Indian Book Club’s editorial initiative to spotlight books that inspire, inform, and leave a lasting impact on readers. Every title featured is carefully handpicked and reviewed by the IBC Editorial Team to maintain quality, authenticity, and literary value. If you are an author, publisher, or reader and would like to submit a book for review, we’d be delighted to hear from you. Please write to us at: editorial@indianbookclub.com Our team personally evaluates each submission, and selected books are featured as official IBC Editorial Reviews on our platform.