“Family Skeletons” by Elayne Gilliam has been critically acclaimed by the US Review of Books

Elayne Gilliam has received positive feedback from the US Review of Books for her work Family Skeletons.

Following the loss of her husband to ALS, the main character struggles to raise four children alone, and discovers her eldest son and daughter suffer from mental illnesses.

She describes her interactions with various public agencies; social, medical and judicial. As she cares for an alcoholic, paranoid schizophrenic son, and a daughter with personality disorder which culminates in suicide, she examines memories from her childhood in a dysfunctional family.

She discovers a genetic closet with mental illness, alcoholism, and deviant behavior. Following a fourth marriage, she finds peace, but at the price of letting go of her mentally ill son.

The book is a poignant story about loss in the family and fans of books dealing with grief will come to love Family Skeletons.

Here’s an excerpt from the review:

“Readers will be able to connect with Gilliam’s memoir because it is written with raw honesty. She writes about her depression and childhood experiences, especially her relationships with her parents that provoked certain life choices in a sober, matter-of-fact way. While these recollections are well-executed, the author has made the choice to only name two of the characters, her children Bret and Dora, but no others. This results in readers not being able to relate as much to some of the other characters frequently mentioned throughout the book that they otherwise might have been able to.”