Mental health professional, professor, podcast host, author, and mother Dr. Carmela Maxell explores the human cost of regulated grief in her debut novel, Bereavement.
Grief has always been one of humanity’s most personal experiences. But what if the ability to mourn wasn’t a right at all? What if remembrance had to be earned through compliance, productivity, and government approval? Those unsettling questions lie at the heart of Bereavement, the debut novel by Dr. Carmela Maxell.
A licensed mental health professional, university professor, podcast host, author, and mother of three, Dr. Maxell has dedicated much of her career to understanding resilience, identity, and the ways people navigate loss. Her work has consistently centered on helping others make meaning from life’s most difficult moments, and those experiences now shape a novel that asks readers to consider the true cost of surrendering our most human emotions.
Set in a haunting dystopian society where grief is regulated by the state, Bereavement follows Daniel Vale, a grieving husband forced to navigate a system that commodifies remembrance and measures mourning through bureaucratic approval. As he searches for connection, memory, and hope, he is confronted with a question that feels increasingly relevant in today’s world: What remains of our humanity when institutions begin to govern even our deepest emotions?
Rather than relying on spectacle, Bereavement explores quiet, psychological tension. It examines love, memory, institutional control, and the enduring human need to remember those we have lost. Readers have praised the novel’s emotional depth, philosophical questions, and thought-provoking premise, describing it as both unsettling and deeply compassionate.
“As a mental health professional, I’ve spent years witnessing the many ways people carry grief—sometimes openly, often silently,” said Dr. Maxell. “Writing Bereavement allowed me to explore what happens when even our right to mourn is no longer entirely our own. At its heart, this story is about love, memory, and what it means to remain human.”
Beyond her fiction, Dr. Maxell hosts the Rooted & Rising podcast, where she explores mental health, leadership, resilience, and personal growth through thoughtful conversations and practical insights. Whether she is teaching in a university classroom, speaking into a microphone, writing fiction, or raising her children, her mission remains the same: to encourage deeper conversations that foster empathy, reflection, and healing.
Bereavement is available now in paperback, Kindle eBook, and audiobook on Spotify.
“Stories have the power to help us imagine different futures, but they also help us better understand ourselves,” Dr. Maxell said. “If Bereavement leaves readers asking deeper questions about love, loss, memory, and what it means to remain human, then it has done exactly what I hoped it would.”
About Dr. Carmela Maxell
Dr. Carmela Maxell is a licensed mental health professional, university professor, podcast host, author, and mother. Through her writing, teaching, and podcast, Rooted & Rising, she explores resilience, identity, leadership, grief, and the shared experiences that connect us. Bereavement is her debut novel.
Media Contact
Dr. Carmela Maxell
Website: http://carmelamaxell.com
Email: press@carmelamaxell.com
