I really enjoyed Before I Let Go! The premise was tremendously compelling and the setting in remote Alaska really added a layer of interest. The build-up to the climax that revealed what had really happened in the town created an absolute page-turner, but it was almost too much. There was a lot of time spent to Corey's outrage and confusion to the point that it became stale. It continued after the big reveal as well. I definitely got hooked on the premise and I will be able to sell this to kids similarly, but I fear that they might feel it's a little overhyped by the time they finish.

Seven months ago, seventeen-year-old Corey had left her hometown of Lost, Alaska as well as her best friend, Kyra. Now she is returning after Kyra’s suicide to try to understand what caused it. But the town Corey is returning to is not the town she left. She expected to find comfort and answers; instead she is met with suspicion and anger, even threats. She is reminded at every turn that she is no longer one of them.

Before she left, Kyra, who was bipolar, was shunned by the town. Now it is Corey who is shunned while the town seems to have built almost a cult around Kyra. Kyra had painted, not because she wanted to, but because she needed to as a coping mechanism. Now her murals and paintings are everywhere. Before, the town was dying. Now it is flourishing and the town is convinced that Kyra is responsible. Kyra expected people to show at least some sense of sorrow at Kyra’s suicide, a death Kyra depicted in one of her paintings. Instead, even her parents insist that it was meant to be.

Before I Let Go, the YA novel by Marieke Nijkamp, was not what I expected. Based on the publisher’s blurb, I thought it would be social commentary wrapped in a mystery. As I began the story, I wanted more about teen suicide and Kyra’s mental illness. I did like the portrayal of how people react to mental illness whether it is to shun those who are afflicted or, conversely, to treat them like mystics or prophets. Certainly, Nijkamp alludes to this. However, she seems, despite Corey’s rational arguments against the town’s cult like behaviour, to place the story in the second camp – Kyra does seem to have the gift of prophecy, the ability to make magical things happen.

In the end, Before I Let Go seemed more Midwich Cuckoo than eg. All The Bright Places. Still, I enjoyed the descriptions of Alaska. And once I accepted that this was not the book I was anticipating, I did enjoy the threatening atmosphere and the overall creepiness of the town and its citizens. Although I didn’t love the story, I like it enough to give it a solid 3 stars.

Thanks to Netgalley and Sourcebooks Fire for the opportunity to ready this book in exchange for an honest review

First i want to thank NetGalley for giving me this in exchange for an honest review. It took me a long time to get around to it but I'm glad in finally did read it.

This is about two friends, one with bi-polar disorder and shunned by the town. After going away for school and her mother's new job, Corey finds herself back in town after her friend's apparent suicude. Not all is as it seems as Corey struggles to find out the story behind her best friend's death.

This is an interesting and pretty good story and I really liked it. It reminded me of Life is Strange, in a sense. (If you play video games, give that one a try).

Corey returns home to a small town in Alaska earlier than she originally planned. She is devastated by the death of her best friend and needs answers. But, the town she used to feel an attachment to turns its' back on her because she moved away. She only has a few short days in Lost. Will she return home as scheduled or will she, too, be Lost?

The description of the book intrigued me, and the book did not disappoint.
I love reading mysteries and trying to figure out the twists and turns in this one kept me busy and kept me up late finishing the book.
The description doesn't tell you that Kyra was bipolar, and was treated very differently in the tiny town once people found out. The book describes her ups and downs with the disease and gives the reader an interesting perspective into living with the disease.
I have lived in small towns and identified with what Corey was feeling in the story at times. They can be very difficult and closed off to outsiders.
As I read the story I felt the emotion and frustration of the main characters. I will recommend this book to others.

This was not a bad book, and my students (who had ARCs) enjoyed it. I think it's one of those books that kids like more than adults. There was buzz in my book club already from the author's previous book.

Before I Let Go is just OK to me. Not one that kept my attention or is one I'd re-read.

Corey and Kyra we're best friends since the day they were born 17 years ago. When Corey leaves Alaska to attend college, they make a promise to each other, a promise to wait. Days before Corey is to fly back to Alaska, Kyra is found dead. Corey doesn't believe it was an accident. And she must find out the truth.

All three stars that I have given “Before I Let Go” are because of the beautiful writing. That being said, I didn’t like this book at all. The story sounds good in the blurb but fell flat all the way around for me. It did not help that I didn’t like any of the characters, so I wasn’t even invested in finding out what happened to them. It was a chore to read. “One of us. One of us. One of us,” ran through my mind the entire time. I know that Marieke Nijkamp is capable of much better storytelling and still look forward to her next book.

They synopsis is interesting, but the book fails to deliver. The main character is boring, unsympathetic, and doesn't develop. The plot is boring and anticlimactic.

It's hard for me to write this... but I really didn't enjoy reading this book. It was a struggle, really, for me to even finish this. I don't know, I just feel like I've put so much expectation on this book (since I've absolutely loved This Is Where It Ends) that when it didn't meet that, I feel so let down. If I didn't set the bar pretty high for this book, I think I will like it (I don't think I will love it even with a bar set low though).

I’m not sure how I feel about this one. Her last book drew me in quickly but I ended up wanting more from it. This sort of did the same for me. It was okay but definitely not my favorite book out there.

The first thing I read by Marieke Nijkamp was This Is Where It Ends and I literally could not stop reading it. I started it one weekend morning and finished it that afternoon. It was unbelievably compelling. When I saw that her newest book, Before I Let Go, was available I snatched it up as quickly as I could. Corey is a high school student who has recently had to leave the home where she grew up in a remote part of Alaska. She misses her life there and especially her best friend Kyra. Having been away six months, Corey is looking forward to a long-planned visit back when she receives the devastating news that Kyra is dead. How could this have happened? Kyra struggled with bipolar disorder and was often seen as an "outsider" in an extremely tight-knit community, but she knew Corey was coming in just a few days. They had plans.
Was her death really as simple as Corey has been told? How and why has the town changed so much in just a few months? And why is Corey now being treated as the "outsider"?

I was so excited for this book and I had such high hopes. It did keep my attention and it was very surprising in parts, but it just didn't go where I thought it was going to go, where I thought it could have gone. I kept waiting for twists and turns that never materialized. Of course it isn't the fault of the author that I came in and continued reading with my own load of expectations. It isn't her job to tell the story I think she is going to tell, but when I got to the last page I couldn't help but feel that it wasn't what I wanted it to be. I am sure that there are other people who will love this book and not share my anticlimax, but I was a little disappointed.
I do still highly recommend This Is Where It Ends, especially in light of current events.

First, many thanks to Netgalley and Sourcebooks Fire for an eARC copy of this book in exchange for a review. All opinions are my own.

I am KICKING myself for putting off reading this one. I loved Nijkamp's earlier work This is Where it Ends so I don't know why I hesitated on this one. I should not have. I read this over the course of an evening and I loved it. It is a blend of magical realism, a thriller, and a harsh look at the realities of living with and loving someone with a mental illness.

Corey moved from the small town of Lost Creek to Winnipeg 7 months ago, and is now on her way back for the funeral of her best friend. Kyra, who was a diagnosed bipolar, had always been treated as an outsider in their small community, and was found dead under the ice of White Wolf Lake. Corey doesn't know what to expect from everyone when she returns, but it definitely isn't what she gets. The entire town is in mourning for Kyra, but they are content in the fact that she served her purpose and can accept that, like a star, she burned too brightly and burned herself out. Because to them, she was a prophet. A seeress like the days of old. And they used her up. Corey doesn't have much time, only a few days until her flight is scheduled to take her back to Canada, away from what she thought of as home, but once there, she realizes she doesn't know anything about these people and what Kyra's last months were like. And no one wants to tell her the details.

The writing in this one was fantastic. The only small details that kept it from being a true 5 star book for me was the timeline (it jumped back and forth a bit too much for me) and the scene at the end with Corey and Kyra's father; I felt like that interaction cheapened some of the rest of the story. Beyond that I loved the characters and the multi-faceted ways that Nijkamp presents mental illness. Highly recommend for grades 8 and up.

The Alaska setting got my attention but I couldn't get into the story. Might be a good fit for someone else.

This is one of the strangest books I've read. Not that this is a bad thing. I loved the story and the raw emotion and anguish portrayed by the MC was well done. But the weirdness of it, how the town reacted, how things happened to the people in the town...that was what really grabbed me. I kept wondering if I'd misread something from earlier in the book. And I had no idea how this would all play out. Would she leave, would the town let her?

Creepily beautiful and definitely recommended

I loved this book! Marieke Nijkamp did it again, because oh, what an emotional story of friendship, mystery, and family.

Before I Let Go is the second book by Marieke Nijkamp I have read, albeit a very different story to the first. In this one, we travel with Corey back to her home village, where she had lived until a few months ago. We find out about her best friend, the one who never quite fitted in, Kyra. Now it is Corey who doesn't fit in, and she works hard to find out what happened to Kyra, who seems to have turned into the town's Oracle.

This is a great story, with an original storyline, and intrigue enough to delight anyone. It is also very sad, as we learn about Kyra, and what happened to her. Corey has to deal with a lot, the least of which knowing that she let her best friend down when she needed her the most. The town is not one that I would want to be visiting!

Well written, with no editing or grammatical errors that I noticed, I was nonetheless confused by the script that appeared in the middle for no apparent reason. I couldn't see any reason for needing it like that, unless it was to just discombobulate the reader even more - in which case, it worked.

If you are looking for a mystery, with a hint of the supernatural, then I can definitely recommend this book.

When you are following a smash hit debut novel it could be a bit daunting for a new author. I loved Nijkamp’s first book (This is Where it Ends) and I must admit that I was a bit nervous picking up this one. How could it possibly compare with the sublime piece of young adult fiction that took the world by storm in 2016?
Set in Lost Creek, Alaska this is a very different setting but as soon as you start unfolding the characters you realise that nothing else has changed. In the depictions of best friends Kyra and Corey Nijkamp has blended a realistic and fatally flawed friendship that tugs at the heartstrings.
The book opens with Corey at her new boarding school. We learn that she has been neglecting her correspondence with Kyra, unable to share her new friendships and experiences with her isolated friend. When her mother phones with bad news Corey’s world falls apart. Kyra is dead. Was it a dreadful winter accident or a deliberate suicide?
Corey heads back to the remote small town where she grew up to attend Kyra’s funeral and to investigate for herself. She needs to know what has happened. What changed after she left Lost Creek that would leave Kyra feeling so low?
Before I Let Go is a lesson in friendship and the pain and joy to be found in first love. Adding in issues of mental illness and small town attitudes makes this a compelling read. Told from the point of view of both girls, Kyra’s notes to Corey are both spellbinding and bittersweet as she finds herself in a position that she can’t get out of. This is a beautiful story that raises so many more questions than it answers. In true Nijkamp style!
Supplied by Net Galley and Sourcebooks Fire in exchange for an honest review.
UK Publication date: Jan 2 2018. 372 pages.

Corey and Kyra grew up the best of friends in the small isolated town of Lost Creek, Alaska. When Corey’s mom decides to the family to the mainland, Kyra and Corey promise to stay in touch and Corey assures Kyra she will come back for her.

Only Kyra doesn’t wait and Corey is now headed back to Lost Creek for Kyra’s memorial. As Corey looks for answers while struggling to accept Kyra’s death, she finds herself standing on the outside looking in, suddenly one of the outsiders while the town speaks of Kyra in hushed tones of love and respect. Sentiments that were not there while she was alive.

The deeper Corey digs, the more she’s convinced something is wrong. The town is keeping secrets, secrets that killed her best friend. And if she isn’t careful, she may join her friend.

Before I let Go is the sophomoric novel from Marieke Nijkamp, author of This Is Where It Ends. Set in the wilds of Alaska, Nijkamp writes an atmospheric YA mystery that focuses on a teenager and her relationship with that around her. A sort of coming of age that addresses friendship, family, love, loss, mental illness, and fear. Told in the first and third person, Nijkamp flashes between the past and present while using a variety of writing mediums to let the protagonist (Corey) tell us her story, focusing on her relationship with her best friend as she attempts to understand why she committed suicide and what the town had to do with it.

Corey has lived most of her life in a small isolated Alaskan town where everyone knows your business and you have been tried and judged from birth. Raised by a single parent who worked long hours, Corey’s best friend was the town pariah, Kyra. Diagnosed as bipolar, the town was frightened by what they didn’t understand and ostracised her. Corey was always there for Kyra but sometimes the weight of being Kyra’s friend dragged Corey down. She admits to being conflicted over the move to the mainland. A new school and friends will give her a chance to reinvent herself. She will no longer be just Kyra’s friend and an outcast by association. There she can be whoever she wants and she takes advantage of that.

Nijkamp captures Corey’s teen voice perfectly. The narrative is indicative of the age as it fluctuates between dramatic outtakes and rambling narcissistic monologues; creating at times a sense of disconnect. She is understandably confused by the cold reception she receives when she arrives back in Lost. Unfortunately for us, we never get a true sense of anyone beyond Corey so we also remain in the dark. We are told she is now considered an outsider but not why; she’s only been away seven months. This lack of follow-through repeats throughout the book.

Corey’s characterization is sharp while those around her blurs out of focus. Even their dialogue is vague and random, overflowing with useless platitudes that try to create a sense of mysticism. If they weren’t an important part of Corey’s life then they didn’t register with her. Kyra is/was the only other whom we really get to know and even then it’s colored by Corey’s perceptions. Nijkamp does a fine job of exploring Corey’s many facets and I enjoyed the patience and perseverance she exhibits as she tries to show us all the truths behind Corey and Kyra’s friendship. She shows more than just the good times but also the awkward, intrusive, and annoying times. We remain unsure of Corey’s true intentions because she is unsure herself. She is walking into this story blind and in her need to assign responsibility to someone for Kyra’s death, she avoids having to look at her own complicity. There is an odd cadence to the narrative, reminding me of Ellen Hopkins’ writing, that lends more to the of disconnection felt.

Using a series of letters, journals, and memories, it’s ridiculously easy to predict what happened and why. Nijkamp captures the town’s xenophobia and selfishness perfectly, though the catalyst that brings it into the open felt manipulative and added an element to the story that didn’t work for me. As we reach the end, we realize there was no great mystery involved here but rather a sad story of a town that chose to sacrifice one of its own to ensure its survival.

Before I Let Go has a strange appeal to it despite the lack of direction, characterization, and her attempts to incorporate multiple tropes which leaves her writing vulnerable and weakens the storyline. I’m not sure about this author but I am willing to give her another try in the future.

Grade: C-