The first book from short story writer, poet, and essayist Jennifer Gravley, The Story I Told My Mother questions what it means to be the adult daughter of a mother—and eventually, a daughter without a mother. The opening poems, anchored in this inevitably fraught relationship, recount a desire for connection that is ultimately unachievable with the death of Gravley’s mother. The concluding hermit crab essay contends with the messiness and interrupting quality of grief through formal restraint, delivering a ferocious gut punch. For Gravley, language and storytelling are a way forward, and wielding them rebuilds her world and self.