A Different Kind of Same: A Memoir

About the Book

Two weeks before his college graduation, Kelley Clink's younger brother died by suicide. Though he'd been diagnosed with bipolar disorder as a teenager and had attempted suicide once before, the news came as a shock-and it sent Kelley into a spiral of guilt and grief.

After Matt's death, a chasm opened between the brother Kelley had known and the brother she'd buried. She kept telling herself she couldn't understand why he'd done it-but the truth was, she could. Several years before he'd been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, she'd been diagnosed with depression. Several years before he first attempted suicide by overdose, she had attempted suicide by overdose. She'd blazed the trail he'd followed. If he couldn't make it, what hope was there for her?

A Different Kind of Same traces Kelley's journey through grief, her investigation into the role her own depression played in her brother's death, and, ultimately, her path toward acceptance, forgiveness, resilience, and love.

About the Author :
Kelley Clink is a full-time writer with degrees in literature from the University of Alabama and DePaul University. Her work has appeared in magazines and literary journals including Under the Sun, South Loop Review, Gettysburg Review, Colorado Review, and Shambhala Sun. She lives in Chicago with her family.

Review :
“Anyone who has lost someone to suicide will find and take courage from this brave and beautiful book.”
—Abigail Thomas, author of
Safekeeping, Three Dog Life, and What Comes Next and How to Like It

“Kelley Clink might label her beautiful book a 'memoir,' but I say it's a detective story. An exquisitely tense mystery. Here is a woman on the desperate hunt for clues about the truth of her brother's death (and life), but the harder she looks, the more she finds out about herself, her marriage, her family, their history. Whatever you call it, it's a gripping and wounding book that invited me to think—and keep thinking—about grief, survival and what it means to heal.”
—Ryan Van Meter, author of If You Knew Then What I Know Now

“Kelley Clink’s story hit me where I live. With calm and elegant strength, she tells the story of her love for her brother and her desire to understand how to be a sister after a sibling has died. A Different Kind of Same is a rewarding memoir to turn to again and again.”
—Jessica Handler, author of Braving the Fire and Invisible Sisters

“Kelley Clink laces suicide and mental illness with one of life's most important ingredients: hope. You need to read this book. It will change you.”
—Gillian Marchenko, author of Sun Shine Down: A Memoir

“Clink takes the reader on the rollercoaster ride of trying to find her place in the world and peace with what happened. As she pieces together the last few months of her brother’s life, as well as shares her own struggles, she provides an intimate view of life inside mental illness and glimpses of how thin the line between choosing death over life can be. This is a book about learning to go on despite knowing life will never be the same again.”
—Washington Independent Review of Books

“[H]onest, brave, and soul-baring in its exploration of grief and clinical depression.”
—Colorado Review