Cleo Dang Would Rather Be Dead

By Mai Nguyễn and Mai Nguyen

Book Overview

A darkly humorous yet uplifting novel about a grieving mother who starts working at a funeral home and discovers that the best way to honor the dead is to live--from the author of the "insightful, moving" (Taylor Jenkins Reid, New York Times bestselling author) Sunshine Nails.

All Cleo Dang has ever wanted is to be a mother. The day she discovers she's pregnant is the happiest of her life, especially when she learns that her best friend, Paloma, is also expecting. It's a wonderful surprise, and together, they enjoy their pregnancies. But when they both go to the hospital in labor, something goes very, very wrong. Paloma comes home with a baby. Cleo does not.

Ravaged by grief, Cleo must now navigate life after losing her baby. She alienates herself from the world, particularly her best friend, who is living the life she so desperately wanted. Forced to take leave from her demanding job as an actuary, Cleo manages to find work at a funeral home, where she meets a revolving cast of bereaved locals and discovers the power of confronting grief.

Darkly humorous yet uplifting, Cleo Dang Would Rather Be Dead follows a grieving mother who starts working at a funeral home and discovers that the best way to honor the dead is to live.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1668080869
• ISBN13: 9781668080863
• Release Date: April 2026
• Publisher: Atria Books
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.2" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Favorite book so far this year.

This book was such a fantastic emotional roller coaster. I think I cried and laughed in equal measure. The dry humor would sometimes sucker punch a laugh out of me and it would bring needed levity. I have never lost a child, but I am familiar with grief and this book describes it so well (in my experience at least). This book will come highly recommended by me to folks in the future.