Book review: The Last Time We Say Goodbye

Title: The Last Time We Say Goodbye

Author: Cynthia Hand

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Summary: Lex and her family have been a mess since her younger brother Tyler committed suicide.  Lex's mom spends a lot of time in bed and/or drinking and Lex has pushed her boyfriend and friends out of her life.  Lex is in therapy somewhat against her will and rolls her eyes at her therapist.  Lex starts to feel haunted by her brother's ghost, which forces her to face her own guilt and unresolved issues.   Heading to college next year, Lex needs to decide if she can leave her mom, who is now truly alone since her parents' divorce.

Review: I am lucky enough that I've never had somebody close to me commit suicide.  So I can't imagine the feelings that this would bring up and I hope that I never have to.  I read this more through the lens of a parent rather than Lex's point of view.  I can't imagine how difficult it would be to deal with losing a child or a sibling to suicide.  This was a pretty raw book.  I could appreciate Lex's reaction as well as her mom's reaction.  Why didn't I give it more stars?  Because it wasn't one of those books that I couldn't wait to pick up when I finally found time to read.

Time to write: way too long

Book Review: I Was Here

Title: I Was Here
Author: Gayle Forman
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Summary:  When Cody's best friend Meg kills herself, Cody is left to pick up the pieces and try and find answers.   Why would a girl that lit up a room kill herself?  Could something more sinister be at play?  Or will Cody have to deal with the guilt that her best friend killed herself and Cody really never noticed that anything was wrong?

Review: I don't think I was the target audience for this.  Cody's an admirable young woman--her mom isn't very hands on, her dad wasn't around growing up and she grew up quite poor.  Despite being very smart, she forgoes school and starts cleaning ouses after high school graduation.  Anyway, Cody's world is shattered when her best friend Meg kills herself.  Without Meg Cody feels lost, but her death opens Cody's eyes to the distance that was growing between the two of them.  I probably would have enjoyed this book more if I was 20 years younger.  There's some romance, of course, which is one of the reasons that I took away one of the stars.  I wasn't convinced that this was going to be a relationship that was going to last.

Time to write review: 6:30 (what can I say, I was distracted).

Book review: Reunion

Title: Reunion
Author:  Hannah Pittard
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Summary:  While she's on a plane, Kate gets a call that her father has died.  Kate's life is in turmoil.  For one, she doesn't even like her dad.  Another, her marriage is in shambles for various reasons, primarily because her husband has caught her cheating.  Also, she has no money because she's extremely in debt.  She heads home to Georgia at the urging of her brother and sister to say goodbye and perhaps deal with some demons.

Review: When I first started this book I thought, "I already read this book except it was called This is Where I Leave You.  I wanted to like this book but this book is no This is Where I Leave You.  And perhaps it's not a fair comparison, but the whole time I read this book that hung over me.  It's not quite as funny nor is it as poignant either.  Still, I could see Kristin Wiig starring in the film adaptation.  Wait for the movie.  Or read This is Where I Leave You.  Kate's dad didn't sound like a peach--Kate's mom was his first of several wives.  I could see why Kate's so angry with her dad.  As an only child I'm often fascinated by books that explore sibling dynamics.  This one just didn't do it for me.  But...it wasn't awful, thus the 3 stars.

Book review: Everything I Never Told You

Title: Everything I Never Told You
Author: Celeste Ng
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Summary:  The Lees are an interracial Chinese American family living in small town Ohio in the 1970s.  Marilyn and James  have complicated relationships with their three children--Nathan, Lydia and the overlooked baby, Hannah.  Lydia is her parents' favorite, but with this favoritism comes incredible pressure.  When her body is found in a lake, the tenuous strings that were holding the family together begin to strain and fall apart.

Review:  The perspective shifts from everybody in the family both before and after Lydia's death as each respective family member tries to process her absence.  Marilyn pushes Lydia to be successful in school so she can have the career that Marilyn never had.  James pushes Lydia to be popular.  Lydia is neither but she doesn't have the heart to tell her parents.  Nathan is heading to Harvard in the fall and Lydia is anxious that she's about to be abandoned and will have to deal with her oppressive parents on her own.  Her hopelessness leads to her suicide.

For some reason it has taken me a long time to write this review.  I thought about downgrading this from four stars to three but ultimately decided against it.  I think the reason it took me so long to write this review is this book tackles complicated topics--family dynamics, marital strife and wanting the best for our children but being blind to the fact that our children are not mini versions of ourselves.


This book was particularly heartbreaking to read as a parent.  Every parent wants their children to be successful, smart and have friends.  I'm dreading the moments in my girls' lives when they are disappointed or hurt.  As parents we try everything we can to shield them from that and yet we know we can't.  And it can be hard to remember that our children are not us.  They will have their own experiences and their own responses to those experiences.  Hopefully we can provide a home that is slightly less dysfunctional than this one, but every family has problems.  Perhaps this is the reason why it took me so long to write this review. Not necessarily because it was a *bad* book (it wasn't), but because it was so serious and layered.  As a result, a serious and layered review.