Read about the woman who cleans up when tragedy strikes
The Trauma Cleaner — Sarah Krasnostein
What to Read This Week
The Trauma Cleaner: One Woman’s Extraordinary Life in the Business of Death, Decay, and Disaster by Sarah Krasnostein
An extra heads up: today’s book recommendation is a dark one, about cleaners of crime scenes and places where people died, including places where people died by suicide. If you would prefer a lighter book, check out a rom-com from earlier this month instead.
Content warnings listed in detail in the footnote of this newsletter.1
What It’s About
Have you ever thought about what happens after the police are done analyzing a crime scene, have taken DNA and evidence, and pack up their equipment and leave? The family is left with the aftermath and without their loved ones. That’s where Sandra Pankhurst comes in.
She’s a cleaner, and she cleans up the toughest jobs of all: the blood stains left behind from a murder or suicide, the mess after a person battling hoarding passes away or is moved out, the person who cleans the places no one else wants to clean. And she does it with compassion, grace, and kindness for the family who is grieving.
But Sandra wasn’t always a cleaner. Krasnostein tells Sandra’s story of how she started her business and why and details her life, which included a hard childhood and a lifetime of transphobic abuse as Sandra transitioned and moved into sex work. Though she has every reason to be pessimistic about the world, Sandra is a shining light for all those she meets, and she shows in her care she takes in cleaning just how much every person she meets matters. Sadly, Sandra Pankhurst passed away in 2021.
Why You Should Read It
Though it’s a hard topic to digest, The Trauma Cleaner shows the other side of our society’s obsession with true crime: the glorification of serial killers and the gruesome murders. Instead, it shows the sadder side, the people who are left behind after the unthinkable happens, and the kinder side, the people who help them pick up the pieces. Krasnostein is also a remarkable storyteller and weaves an enthralling story that will break your heart and lift you up.
Next Up
Today I’m going to do a bonus mini recommendation! I read this sweet little graphic novel, Garlic and the Vampire, and absolutely fell in love from the minute I opened the page to the dedication: “To all the anxious bulbs.” I immediately teared up and said, “I’m an anxious bulb!” It follows tiny little Garlic as she struggles through her day until the village discovers there might be a vampire living among them, and who better than Garlic to go fight him? Too bad Garlic is terrified! It’s an excellent book for adults and kids (even better, read together!) and inspires us all to be brave—and more importantly, tells us it’s okay to be a little scared sometimes too. I put the sequel, Garlic and the Witch, on hold immediately after finishing!
I wanted to balance today’s very dark and serious book with something a little lighter so you can balance your reading too. It’s important to read about the hard subjects, but it’s also important to read joyous things that make us happy. How do you balance your own reading life?
More Books
Can’t get enough, or looking for a different recommendation? Browse the archives, or check out some popular past recommendations:
Read a mystical novel about what it means to be a mother, a daughter, a woman
Read one family’s struggle to stay together amid an unexplainable, almost magical event
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Content warnings include but are not limited to: gruesome crime scene descriptions, transphobia and homophobia, domestic and sexual abuse, hoarding, mental illness, suicide, death.