Content Warning: This guide includes moments of and references to suicide, addiction, abuse, and domestic violence.

In the crumbling world of I Cheerfully Refuse, characters constantly face and overcome immense grief. It follows them, just like the storms of Lake Superior, and through personal journeys and supportive relationships, characters like Rainy confront the burden of their losses. Rainy in particular confronts grief in the novel, trying to understand and process the loss of his wife, Lark. Her sudden murder shakes him to his core and makes his flight from Werryck a journey of not only survival but self-discovery. As Rainy tries to make it to the Slate Islands, hoping to meet Lark’s spirit there, he can’t escape her presence: “I saw Lark for one long moment in the island’s craggy sheer. What I mean is her face took shape in the ancient stone as I drifted slowly past. Her eyes were shadows, her lips ridges softened by distance, her hair a sweep of climbing firs” (124-25). The grief that haunts Rainy is always present. He constantly thinks of Lark and often finds her in his dreams and memories. Her influence on his life is so strong that he even sees her in the nature around him.