Grief (novel) The stages are denial, anger, depression, and acceptance. The narrator, as well as other characters in the story, slowly passes through these stages in trying to deal with death. During the story, the theme of dealing with grief overcomes the narrator, the landlord and Frank. Premature death grief results from the guilt that they try to deal with because of the AIDS epidemic. Many of their friends, for example one named Nick is overcome by the disease. When told about his HIV, Nick “looked like a deer caught in a car’s headlights for weeks... he even chased the doctor who
Truth Serum (EP) songs for it; she said in an interview that "when you look at the songs, it's all about honesty and I'm really giving up a lot of myself in these songs; I'm not filtering anything. I felt that kind of speaks a lot for how truthful the EP is". Some critics compared the storyline to the five stages of grief, a theory introduced by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross. Alex Panisch of "Out" opined that the first five tracks "document the five stages of a relationship turning sour: good times, doubt, breaking up, coping, and still being hung up". Critics also noted that,