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Loved and Missed
Loved and Missed by Susie Boyt Review: A Grandmother's Wry, Aching Love
Susie Boyt's Loved and Missed follows Ruth, a London schoolteacher who takes in her granddaughter Lily while her daughter Eleanor battles drug addiction. Critics praise its wry first-person voice and emotional precision, though its heavy subject won't suit everyone.
LuvemBooks Verdict
Best for
Readers of literary domestic fiction who prize voice, dry humour and emotional precision, and who can sit with a grandmother's long, unsentimental account of addiction, caregiving and grief.
Worth it if
Worth reading if you want a short, wry novel where a self-deprecating narrator carries real pain and gives it specific, unmelodramatic detail.
Skip if
Skip it if you want dramatic custody battles or relapse set pieces, or if overdose and family estrangement are too close to your own experience, since the years pass swiftly by design and Eleanor stays closed off behind Ruth's view.
Where reviewers agree and split
Readers rate it 4.4 on Amazon. The reviews we read that discuss it in depth agree:
Both reviews we read that discuss its prose praise the prose.
Prose
2 praise the prose
Humour
2 find the wit a strength
Who says what
Prose
“Boyt's prose is stunning as she traces the history of this complicated, makeshift family.”
— BookBrowse · Book blog“Susie Boyt’s perfect writing makes every single sentence a joy to read.”
— Karen's Bookbag · Book blogHumour
“Unexpected humor percolates through the matter-of-fact voice of Loved and Missed’s engaging narrator”
— BookPage · Trade reviewWhat readers & critics say
Kirkus Reviews praised Ruth's first-person narration for balancing the loss of a daughter against the hope of a second chance, while BookBrowse's reviewer admired how much the book achieves in around 200 pages. The book blogger behind Mookse and Gripes found it oddly uplifting but noted that some in a library book club, particularly those close to similar experiences, did not.
“her self-deprecating wit resists maudlin sentimentality”
— Kirkus ReviewsAsk LuvemBooks
Was this helpful?
- Is it worth reading?
- Yes, if you come for the prose and the narrator rather than for plotting. Reviewers consistently single out the writing and the wit, and the book packs a surprising amount into a small space. The main caveat is that it declines the dramatic set pieces a premise like this might promise, and the subject is genuinely hard going for some readers.
- Similar books
- For another addiction story with a strong narrating voice, Barbara Kingsolver's Demon Copperhead is far larger in scale but shares a focus on how families absorb dependency. Kaveh Akbar's Martyr! approaches addiction and inheritance more experimentally. Elizabeth Strout's Olive Kitteridge offers the same unsentimental, dry-humoured look at difficult family bonds, and Sigrid Nunez's The Friend pairs grief with a spare, wry narrative voice. Boyt's own memoir, My Judy Garland Life, is the natural next step for readers who want more of her.
- Who should read this?
- It suits readers who appreciate a distinctive narrator, dry humour and character depth, and who are comfortable with grief running through a book. It will also appeal to anyone interested in caregiving across generations and what families pass on. Readers wanting a fast, conflict-driven story should look elsewhere.
- What age is it for?
- This is an adult literary novel and is best for adult readers. It depicts drug addiction, a newborn in withdrawal, an overdose scene and family estrangement, which older teens may handle but which sensitive readers of any age should know about in advance.
- About Susie Boyt
- Susie Boyt (born January 1969) is a British novelist and journalist. She has published seven novels and a memoir about her obsession with Judy Garland.
- What are the main themes?
- Caregiving, inheritance and the way love and grief become hard to tell apart sit at the centre. Reviewers also note attention to family legacies, such as Ruth's line about fatherlessness as a hereditary disease. The book treats addiction through its effect on those left caring rather than through the addict's own interior life.
- What is Ruth's narration like?
- Ruth's voice is matter-of-fact, and critics credit it with keeping real pain from tipping into sentimentality. Reviewers also describe humour percolating through that plain delivery, and the prose is praised for its precision and its everyday, schoolroom detail.
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What the book is
Why it has drawn attention
What critics admire
Where it complicates or frustrates
Who it is for
Sources & Further Reading
The key facts and claims in this review are grounded in the retrieved, verified sources listed below.
- Cited in this review
- 1
bookbrowse.com
- Further reading
- 2
Susie Boyt, LuvemBooks
- 3
- 4
kirkusreviews.com
- 5
- 6
- 7
bookbrowse.com
- 8
- 9
mookseandgripes.com
- 10
- 11
bookmarks.reviews
- 12
booksaremyfavouriteandbest.com
- 13
bookpage.com
- 14
penguinrandomhouse.com
- 15
BookBrowse
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