Keepsake [Paperback]

My review:

I would like to start with the book cover. It's beautiful! If I wouldn't know what the book is about, then deciding only from the cover of the book you expect the content to be something else. It's a classy picture to put on a book which is about hoarding. Slightly misleading on the first sight, but elegant cover in my opinion.

Keepsake by Kristina Riggle is a wonderful book about family ties and relationships, different disorders people are struggling with, about pain, hope and love. Keepsake is a well written novel which is easy to read and it touches topics which many people are familiar with. Keepsake touches your heart deeply.

Regarding the plot:

Reader meets Trish whose life seems to be working fine, at least to herself. Trish is a divorced mother of two kids and she has built her own world where she feels safe and comfortable. Her world is highly influenced by hoarding, she gathers absolutely everything from everywhere and has surrounded herself with things she will never need. But it offers her safety and comfort and an illusion of that she is fine and her family is fine.

Until one day, Trish's son is hurt and Child Protective Services is behind her door wanting to take her kid away. One of the reasons is hoarding. So Trish needs to change her life and give up hoarding which seems unreachable target for her because giving something away is very painful for her. Being a compulsive hoarder, she needs to get help. If not, she will have to face tragical results.

Trish has a sister - Mary. Mary is everything, Trish is not, but also Mary has her hard challenges. She is suffering from the compulsive cleaning disorder.

Trish and Mary need to work together to get Trish out of her problems and as the result you have a fascinating story - Keepsake - about two sisters who are two very different outcomes of a dysfunctional family.

I loved the story! I wasn't very familiar with hoarding before reading the book. I cannot even comprehend what the living of a hoarder would look like in reality, but that problem of mine was very detailed explained in Keepsake. I think Kristina Riggle did a wonderful work to visually show what a home of a hoarder would be. Author also did a brilliant job with the characters.

Regarding the characters:

I felt sorry for Trish. Her hoarding disorder was not understandable for me, but since the author put so many efforts to Trish, showing what she thought and how her world was functioning, she made her inner struggles so clear that Trish was believable for me. She seemed so real with her problems and challenges and that made her lovable character for me. I have to admit, that I am very far from her personality myself, but yet, I truly enjoyed her. I think there was an fascinating depth in her.

Mary was the opposite of Trish. While reading the book I found myself thinking that what an useful disorder to have -the house would always be cleaned and pristine, but as the story develops you see and realize how much it has damaged Mary. None of the extremes are admirable.

The best part of the story was how the relationship between Trish and Mary developed. It was strong, complicated and heart-wrenching. Well done from the author side!

Generally:

Keepsake by Kristina Riggle is a great novel! I would highly recommend it! It is easy to read, it creates emotions and pulls you in! It shows you the colorfulness of humanity and it gives hope! Loved it!

Check out the full review on Kritters Ramblings

A heartwrenching look at a disease that has become coming up more and more through tv shows and the media - hoarding. The reader immediately meets Trish a hoarder who has CPS on her front door due to an accident in her home with her youngest son. Soon after we meet her sister Mary, who has the exact opposite problem an OCD cleanliness thing.

Whenever I've come across one of those TV shows about hoarding I've always wondered how the mess could truly get that bad. How do you not know that your house is packed nearly floor to ceiling and that it isn't a healthy way to live, for you or for any family members living there? How could you stand the clutter, the smell? Keepsake by Kristina Riggle works to answer these questions and more by dropping the reader right into the middle of a hoarder's life and giving a first-hand look at the inner working of a hoarder and the devastating consequences to those around them.

This book was definitely an eye-opener for me. What I found to be the most interesting was the contrast between the character Trish's hoarding and her sister, Mary's, OCD cleaning tendencies. Both women were using these habits to hide from their pasts and shut out their present as well. I actually ended up having the most sympathy for Mary, someone who was so closed off from feeling anything in an attempt to keep from getting hurt that she had forgotten how to react normally to people who cared about her. I also found the fact that Trish and Mary's mother was a hoarder and that the disorder seemed to pass down to Trish and that even her own son, Jack, was beginning to display those same habits fascinating. The trauma from one generation seemed to trickle down and influence the next, leaving a lot of hurt to be healed to break the cycle.

Trish was a harder character for me to sympathize with. While the reasons that initiated her hoarding were devastating, I hated watching her attack Mary every time she tried to help and bemoaning to herself over and over that she had no one when all the people around her were there to help her. I understand that much of what she said and thought were defense mechanisms but it still got under my skin that she was so unappreciative of what the others were trying to do.

All in all I think Keepsake was a very good read. It gave me a better look into the why's behind hoarding and a new family dynamic I have never read about before. This is the second book by Kristina Riggle I have read and I am eager to see what she writes next.