Sorry for Your Loss by Georgia McVeigh: A deliciously twisted game of obsession, grief, and control

Grief can make people do strange things—but in Sorry for Your Loss by Georgia McVeigh, releasing March 31, 2026, grief is just the starting point for a psychological duel between two people who may be far more dangerous than they first appear. What begins as a chance meeting in a grief support group quickly turns into a tense, unsettling cat-and-mouse game where the real question isn’t whether someone is lying—it’s who’s manipulating whom.

At the center of the story is Iris, a woman who is clearly out of touch with reality. She attends a local grief group to keep herself “grounded,” but from the start it’s obvious that Iris is holding onto far more than grief. Her childhood offers clues about how she became the person she is. Iris grew up in the shadow of her twin sister, Marcie—the golden child who their mother adored. Marcie’s birth came easily, while Iris reportedly took days to arrive, a story their mother never let her forget. Even after Marcie’s tragic death at seventeen, their mother openly wished it had been Iris instead. It’s the kind of emotional wound that never quite heals, and as an adult Iris is still searching for the love and validation she never received.

But Iris is far from an innocent victim of circumstance. She comes across as someone who has no fixed personality at all, bending and reshaping herself into whatever form best serves her in the moment. She lies easily, reinvents herself constantly, and seems to feel very little genuine empathy. Because Iris herself is so detached from reality, the reader is never entirely sure how much of her narration can be trusted. She’s one of those deeply unlikeable characters you initially want to root for—until the more time you spend in her head, the more uneasy that instinct becomes.

Then Jack arrives.

From the moment he sits down in the circle of plastic chairs at the grief group, Jack has an undeniable presence. Handsome, composed, and newly widowed, he immediately catches Iris’s attention. She convinces herself that fate has brought them together. At first, the reader might feel sorry for him once Iris begins focusing her obsessive attention in his direction. But as the story unfolds and more of Jack’s past comes to light, that sympathy begins to shift.

Because Jack has secrets of his own.

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Soon the novel evolves into a tense psychological duel. Iris is manipulative, obsessive, and desperate to control the narrative of her own life. Jack, meanwhile, proves to be far less helpless than he initially appears. The deeper Iris digs into his world, the more it becomes clear that these two may be disturbingly well matched. The real tension comes from the fact that both of them want the upper hand—and relationships built on domination rarely allow two people to occupy the same position of power.

McVeigh does a particularly effective job building this escalating sense of unease. The plot moves through a series of sharp twists, each one forcing the reader to reassess who is truly in control at any given moment. Just when you think you’ve figured out the predator and the prey, the story shifts again.

The ending ties up many of the lingering threads a little too neatly, and some readers may find the final explanations slightly contrived. Yet there’s also a dark humor in the way everything resolves, as if the story itself is quietly acknowledging how outrageous the situation has become. The result is a conclusion that feels oddly satisfying while still leaving behind a lingering sense of discomfort.

Sorry for Your Loss is an edgy, fast-moving psychological thriller filled with morally messy characters and unreliable perspectives. If you enjoy stories where everyone involved may be playing their own dangerous game—and where trust is never a safe option—this one delivers plenty of tension and intrigue. The novel releases March 31, 2026, and is available for preorder now.

What about you? Do you enjoy thrillers built around deeply flawed characters, or do you prefer protagonists you can actually trust? Share your thoughts in the comments.

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Now that Jack has been forced to reflect on everything he has to lose, he resolves to do better. He’s determined to spend more time at home with his family and repair the relationships that have suffered over the years while he’s been so focused on work. But as Callie’s behavior becomes increasingly bizarre, Jack realizes he has a lot more room to improve than he realized – and it might be too late to save his daughter after all.

For fans of We Need to Talk About Kevin, The Push, and Baby Teeth.