To Die Is Different Than Supposed - by Alissa Butterworth (Paperback)

About the Book

We died by bicycle, by a breakfast gone bad, by a fist, a broken promise, a rowboat, letters no one else was supposed to see.

Book Synopsis

2025 Readers' Choice Book Awards Gold Winner, Adult Fiction

2025 National Indie Excellence Award for Literary Fiction Finalist

2025 Maxy Award in General Fiction and Nonfiction Runner-Up

We died by bicycle, by a breakfast gone bad, by a fist, a broken promise, a rowboat, letters no one else was supposed to see.

Twenty years ago, the Gable family was nearly perfect-five siblings growing up in an old farmhouse in Pennsylvania with supposedly loving parents. But when a series of devastating events rocks the family-a house fire, the death of their young brother, infidelity, and betrayal-the siblings are left shattered and lost.

Jackson is the oldest, the distant wanderer. Lex is trapped on the other side, desperately trying to communicate. Adrian is on the verge of a breakdown. Ella is haunted, finding comfort in a familiar ghost. Remy is the embittered "good" son. And Calvin is the youngest, the half-brother trying to make sense of inherited pain.

When the estranged siblings come together for their father's funeral, they must reckon with his legacy of abuse and abandonment, and with the secrets they kept from each other for so long. Will Jackson find it in himself to tell the horrific story the family most needs to hear? Or will they all be forever trapped by their complicated pasts, unable to move into a more hopeful and united future?