Grief takes center stage for each of the narrators in The Beauty That Remains. Autumn doesn't know how to return to school and her friend group after her best friend's death, Shay is lost without her twin sister, and after the death of his ex-boyfriend Logan no longer can write out his emotions in a song. Each character has a connection to music, one band specifically.

While each narrator unravels in his or her own way, music plays an integral role in calming him or her. Readers will root for these characters to learn how to live again, even after suffering the life-changing loss of a loved one.

THOUGHTS: Fans of compelling, grief-stricken books will appreciate the experience of each teen who is learning to live with a close loss. I've read a lot of sad books over the past year. Give this one to fans of Zentner's Goodbye Days, Armentrout's If There's No Tomorrow, Ramey's The Sister Pact, Biren's The Last Thing You Said, Hart's After the Fall, Brashares's The Whole Thing Together, and Bateman's Someone Else's Summer. Some drug use and underage drinking make this title more suited for high school readers.

I don’t enjoy reading about death. It’s a topic that makes it difficult for me to truly enjoy the story—mostly because I’m often questioning the need to use it as a plot driver. That said, I thoroughly enjoyed this debut by Ashley Woodfolk.

Logan, Autumn, and Shay are all dealing with a loss. Each of them in a manner that is their own, but all are struggling to find a way to mend their hearts without breaking themselves.

Logan is the most tortured, and destructive, of the three. His anger and guilt lead him to drugs and alcohol. You feel his pain, and understand his longing, but you also cheer for him and want so much for him to find redemption.

Autumn finds solace in a new love, but said relationship complicates her healing process in unexpected ways. She’s consumed by the “what ifs”, and feels adrift in a world where she placed much of her identity in a friend she now has to let go.

Shay is the character to whom I was most drawn.Her heartbreaking loss has placed her in emotional limbo, and that’s something she understands she’ll always have to navigate.

She has a great group of friends, but grief is something twe all work through in different ways—and Shay isn’t sure she has the tools, or the strength, to overcome the brokenness loss has left behind.

She’s a beautiful character, and the one I definitely was the most proud to see come to life in this story.

There isn’t one character that wasn’t lovingly rendered. Even the ones who weren’t central to the plot (Perry, Shay’s mother, DeeDee, Aden, etc.) felt beautifully real and sentient.

I loved that.

Ashley Woodfolk has produced a fabulous debut, on an exceedingly tough topic, and she’s done so with the proper amount of empathy and care.

It’s a tough read, but it’s a beautiful one.

The Beauty That Remains is such a beautiful debut novel. It focuses on grief in a unique and fresh way. The writing is raw and emotional. It's not often you find a YA novel about grief with such an engaging plot. The characters are marvelous. Highly recommended to readers looking for something fresh in YA contemporary fiction especially those looking for a novel on grief.

Description:


Music brought Autumn, Shay, and Logan together. Death might pull them apart.

Autumn always knew exactly who she was: a talented artist and a loyal friend. Shay was defined by two things: her bond with her twin sister, Sasha, and her love of music. And Logan has always turned to writing love songs when his real love life was a little less than perfect.

But when tragedy strikes each of them, somehow music is no longer enough. Now Logan is a guy who can't stop watching vlogs of his dead ex-boyfriend. Shay is a music blogger who's struggling to keep it together. And Autumn sends messages that she knows can never be answered.

Despite the odds, one band's music will reunite them and prove that after grief, beauty thrives in the people left behind.

My Thoughts:
It seems like there is too much teenage death in this society, as in this book. Granted, none of the dead teens was killed by a school shooter, but there are three characters who tell the story of three dead teens. One died in a single car crash, one committed suicide and one died of cancer. However,

I actually tried to finish the book, fell asleep and dreamt about one of the characters. That is always a sign of good writing.

Woodfolk switches characters for each of the chapters, so it is like listening to three different albums at once until I finally realize that no, I am listening to the same album, through different entry points and it is not until I am almost finished with the album that I realize what the music is trying to say.

So what is it saying? Grief is heart breaking in many different ways. Time is different, interventions are different, healing is different. Perhaps the music brings the different characters together in the end, but the beauty that remains is not the music, but the acceptance by those left behind that it's ok to live.

Loved this book!!

This book took some tough issues and executed it perfectly!

Shay and Sasha are twin sisters who share an amazing bond. Unfortunately, Sasha dies from her illness. Now Shay is left alone. Then you have Logan who is a great musician with his boyfriend by his side nothing can go wrong. But then he loses Bram. Then you have Autumn and her best friend Octavia, however, Octavia isn't really here either.

These three characters have all lost someone in the worst way. Each of them is dealing with this loss differently and not one is the same. Losing the ones they loved meant losing music too. Music no longer holds life together and each will need support and love from those around them to help heal and put the pieces back together.

Each story will hit your emotions. Perfectly written and a book you won't soon forget.

The Beauty that Remains is a gorgeously written book about loss, grief, and finding comfort in music. Ashley Woodfolk created three distinct and dynamic main characters who are all dealing with their own tragic losses. One character is grieving for a twin sister, another for a best friend, and another for an ex-boyfriend. Each character is connected to a, now broke up, local band. Throughout the story, the three main characters connections become clearer and their stories intertwine. Woodfolk writes so candidly about love and how to move forward with your life when someone you love is gone. Though each main character is dealing with the death of a loved one, they struggle and fight to move on in their own way. Each character has their own support systems and methods of coping .

Woodfolk also created a diverse cast of characters. The Beauty That Remains has black main characters, an adopted Korean-American character, and a gay character. Each character talks about how their racial or sexual identity influences their lives and acceptance into the music scene. Shay, a music blogger, was often the only black teen in the crowd at the pop punk shows she loves. Woodfolk has provided some badly needed representation featuring kids of all colors in this music scene inspired YA novel.

Readers of Jeff Zentner, Adam Silvera, and Sarah Dessen will love this heartbreaking book.

Thank you to Delacorte Press and Netgalley for the advance Kindle copy of this book. Pre-reading helps develop a middle school library’s collection like you wouldn’t believe! This gem is out TOMORROW! (3/6/18)
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⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 for this heartbreaking novel about grief. I will be honest, at first I was all, “where is this going?”!The story is told in alternating voices, with each character having lost someone close to them. Autumn’s best friend was killed in a car crash. Logan lost his ex-boyfriend to suicide. Shay’s twin sister died from complications related to leukemia. As they struggle to come to terms with their losses and life without their loved ones, a common thread just might bring them together. Once I got going, I was a true believer in this book. It’s perfect for fans of Jeff Zentner and Adam Silvera.
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Highly recommended for high school collections.

The Beauty That Remains is Ashley Woodfolks debut novel. It covers a variety of subject such as death, depression, LGBT and suicide. There is a great deal of grief and loss in this novel. Woodfolk does an exemplary job and expressing the deep and profound emotions that come with the loss of a love, emotion's that one doesn't understand until they have lost someone themselves.


Woodwork can capture emotions. I wanted desperately to love her novel but I struggled to connect with the storylines. There was just way too much going on and I found myself constantly trying to determine which character was telling their story. It took me nearly half the book before I was able to catch the cadence of her writing and the voice of her characters. Once I got past the struggle, I found myself much more involved in their stories and found the book to be more enjoyable.


The characters are Autumn, who's best friend, Octavia passed away in a tragic accident. Autumn struggles with this loss and as a means to heal and cope with the death of her friend, she continues to send her messages, spend the night in her (Octavia's) bedroom and form a bond with her brother.


Logan's ex-boyfriend, Bram is dead. He is full of regrets as his last words to Bram were harsh. He deals with his grief and guilty by consuming alcohol, being self destructive and unkind to his mind and body. Music is both his respite and pain.


Shay's twin sister, Sasha's life was taken too soon as a result of leukemia, leaving Shay "twinless" and alone. She struggles to cope with living her life without taking care of sister and having that constant in her life. Running, kissing and music are her coping mechanisms. Her struggles are further combated with the weakened relationship she has with her mom.


All of these stories are told separately but weave together. They overlap and music becomes the common factor in mending broken hearts.


I personally feel that this book would have been a lot stronger had there been more depth and background into the characters. It fell flat some but not horrible for a debut novel. I would give Woodfolk a second chance because the passion and ability to develop characters it there.


Don' t totally rule this book out, give it some time to tell you it's story and you will find that it is worth your time.

Three people, each suffering heartbreaking losses, meet through the power of music. And this is what I loved most about The Beauty that Remains: the way Ashley Woodfolk shows the depth and breadth of the healing power of music.

The problem is that I couldn't really form a connection to the characters, at least not the way I wanted to. I felt for Autumn, and my heart broke for Logan, mostly because he is so full of self-loathing that it's impossible not to want to wrap him in your arms and help him find peace. Shay is the only one I felt a true kinship with, although we couldn't be more different. Perhaps it's beause she feels everything so intensely, including frustration and grief. She just seems like someone I know or wish I had had as a friend when I was in high school.

Woodfolk addresses a LOT of issues in this book, including suicide, depression, LGBTQ, and social and cultural diversity. Sometimes this works well (with Logan particularly), and sometimes it feels a little scattered and detached. I keep coming back to an overarching lack of connection. The three characters are associated, but Woodfolk takes a little too long to get you there.

I wanted to love this book. Instead, I'm left feeling a little underwhelmed.

Ashley Woodfolk’s The Beauty That Remains is one of the most moving books I’ve read in a long time. It is a story about love and loss and how overwhelming the grieving process can be. In some ways because of its subject matter, it was a difficult book to read. I felt my heart absolutely breaking for the characters in this book over and over again because their grief was so palpable. At the same time, however, I thought it was a beautiful read with an important message about how we all grieve in our own way and in our own time, and I thought Woodfolk did a beautiful job of exploring that as she takes us through the grieving process of three teenagers who have lost someone close to them.

The book follows Autumn whose best friend Tavia recently died in a car accident, Shay who is dealing with the loss of her twin sister Sasha to leukemia, and Logan, whose ex-boyfriend Bram has committed suicide. As soon as we meet each of them, it becomes clear that they are really struggling to cope with the loss of their loved ones. Autumn spends more time at Tavia’s home than she does her own now and also sends emails to her dead friend’s Gmail account almost every day because she doesn’t feel like she can talk to anyone else about how lost she feels. Shay is struggling, not just because looking at her own face in the mirror every day is a constant reminder that she has lost the person closest to her in the whole world, but also because she just doesn’t feel like she knows how to live or where she fits in without Sasha by her side. She feels awkward around their mutual friends, and then there’s the music review blog she and Sasha ran together. Shay can barely imagine trying to move forward with that without Sasha, whose reviews were the heart and soul of the blog. Logan is not only mourning the loss of Bram who he’s pretty sure he was in love with, but he is also wracked with guilt because he and Bram had a huge fight and Logan said some awful things to him that he never got the chance to apologize for. Logan is barely hanging on and starts drinking to cope with his emotions.

As Autumn, Shay, and Logan withdraw from their friends and family and bottle up their emotions, we see firsthand just how messy and ugly grief can be. Woodfolk takes us deep into the psyche of these grieving teens and shows us exactly what they won’t share with those around them: all of those haunting ‘what ifs’ – what if we hadn’t fought, what if I hadn’t said those awful words, what if I had gone to the party with her, what if….

Powerful and authentic presentation. I think what I liked most about this book is the way Woodfolk presents three completely different journeys of grief and healing to show just how truly individual the grieving process is. Autumn, Shay, and Logan each experience their own unique array of emotions and develop their own mechanisms for coping with their loss. Some of the emotions and coping mechanisms are of course healthier than others, but what each of them goes through just feels so authentic. At times I felt like I was right there either grieving with them or wishing I could say something to take away their pain.

An emotionally devastating book that still manages to have a beautiful and positive message. Even though this book was at times emotionally draining just because its subject matter is so difficult and intense, I still thought it radiated such a positive message overall. Woodfolk shows us that no matter how dark a tunnel you find yourself in after losing a loved one, there is still light at the end of it. You just have to keep pushing through at your own pace until you get there. And you can’t do it alone. You need the love and support of the ones you keep pushing away. And of course you’ll always miss the person that you lost, but you can still heal and move forward. Your loved one would want that for you.

The healing power of music. Even though all of the teens in this book expressed their grief in different ways, they still had one thing in common on their journey to healing…music. Music in the form of a local rock band called Unraveling Lovely is the thread that connects these three individual journeys of grief. I’ve always found music to be cathartic and healing so I loved that it played such a central role in this book and helped these teens find their way through the darkness.

I had a couple of small issues with The Beauty That Remains but nothing so big that it took away from my enjoyment of the overall story.

Autumn has a budding romance with Dante, the brother of her deceased best friend, and I was torn about that. On the one hand, it was nice to see Autumn and Dante talk to each other about the loss of Tavia, especially since they weren’t really talking to anyone else about it. At the same time, however, every time their meetings took a romantic turn, the romance just felt out of place.

I also occasionally had trouble keeping all of the character’s names straight and kept mixing up who the survivors were and who the deceased were. I’d have to refresh my memory each time I picked the book up again. I think that was my own fault though because the book got to me so much emotionally. I happened to be reading The Beauty That Remains the same week that 17 students and faculty members lost their lives at a high school in Parkland, Florida. The book just hit me all the harder as I thought about what the students, parents, and administrators at the school must be going through and so I could only read a little at a time before I just needed to take a breather. I think if I been able to read it straight through without stopping so much, keeping the names straight wouldn’t have been an issue.

Through her characters and their experiences in The Beauty That Remains, Woodfolk gently reminds us all that there isn’t a right or a wrong way to grieve when you lose someone you love. We all grieve in different ways and some of us take longer to heal than others, but as long as we keep moving forward, eventually there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Actual rating: 3.5 stars

Thank you, Random House Children's, for giving me a free, digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

Truthfully, I didn't know what to expect going into this novel. Initially, it was the cover that drew me in. Then I read the synopsis, and as I'm currently trying to read more contemporaries, I requested this from NetGalley. This book is about loss and heartbreak, grief and pain, and working through who you are when the people you love the most are gone. I probably would have liked this more 13 years ago, but I’m glad it’s here for those who need it now.

TW: Suicide

I haven't lost someone the way Shay, Autumn, or Logan have, so I can't speak for how authentic their feelings are, but damn, did they hurt. Each character is incredibly three-dimensional, and you feel yourself hurting, breaking, and rediscovering right along with them. And not only is it just these characters who grieve, but there are family members and friends, like everyone is lost in a cavernous sea with only a life jacket to save them. What's crazy is that we don't see how these three main characters are connected until later in the story.

There's a lot of positives here: positive therapist/client relationship, developing relationship between mother and daughter, reconciling friendships and building relationships that were once broken, and a positive approach to mental health.

I enjoyed the writing as well, but if I'm being incredibly honest, I found myself reading this book just so I could finish it. I feel a bit guilty after I finished reading it, because I felt like this could have been given to someone who needed to read about characters like Shay, Autumn, and Logan. If I were their age, I would have wanted to be them, especially Shay who is incredibly deep into the local music scene--something I pined after when I was in high school.

I questioned a handful of things. Autumn is Korean, adopted by an American family, but she fit into the "quiet Asian girl" role. Those words are actually said a few times throughout the book in reference to Autumn. I don't like the stereotype, but I think Autumn was this way because of her relationship with her friend, Octavia, and things begin to change as the story progresses, and gives me hope that she will learn about and grow into herself more. But I was fun to see Autumn's family try to keep the connection to her Korean heritage alive, like cooking Korean food.

I look forward to see what else Woodfolk writes. It's heart-wrenching and provocative.

This is a really hard book to read because it portrays grief in such a painful, immediate way. Three teenagers are dead, and the people closest to them are struggling to keep going. They are furious and devastated and they don't have time for the usual pleasantries or to try and make other people feel better. 

This is incredibly well-written and poignant (but never maudlin, which is probably incredibly easy to slip in to, given that it's about grief). It's maybe not a book that you'll love reading (it's so sad!) but it's definitely the kind of book that will stay with you.

Recommended.

Content warnings: death, loss, suicide, drugs, alcohol, anxiety, panic attacks

What a beautiful gem of a book. The Beauty that Remains is an excellent debut, and an even better exploration of grief and loss. We follow three main characters– Autumn, Logan, and Shay– who have all recently lost someone important in their lives. We see how each of them processes loss and death differently, and eventually, we find out how their stories and lives intertwine.

My very favorite thing about this book, speaking of which, was the multiple perspectives. Autumn’s best friend has died in a car crash; Logan’s ex has committed suicide; and Shay’s twin sister has died of leukemia. Each POV character had a distinct voice, and though they all experienced similar tragedies, they struggle with different issues in the aftermath of those tragedies. It’s hard to pick a favorite, but I think Shay was my favorite voice. I related deeply to her struggles with anxiety, and I think she processed grief in a similar way to me. Although, I will say, I loved the slight mystery element in Logan’s perspective, and I also loved the unexpected friendship he forms (I won’t spoil it). And every time I read one of Autumn’s chapters, I just wanted to wrap her up in a giant hug. I really appreciated the way all the main characters’ were connected, too. I’m always on board with the idea that music unites people, especially in times of grief and hardship. Even though it sounds cheesy, making music with my choir has been the only thing that got me through my toughest mental health times.

Oh, and the diversity among the main characters? Fantastic. Autumn is Korean, but has been adopted by white parents. Her love interest, as well as her best friend, are both Latinx. Logan is gay, and his ex-boyfriend is queer. Shay and her love interest are both black. I’m happy that so many readers will have the chance to see themselves represented in the pages of this book. I can tell that Ashley Woodfolk put a lot of effort into getting this representation right, and I know that at least the black representation is #ownvoices.

Another great element of this story? The writing. Ashley Woodfolk’s prose is striking and lovely, and there are lots of beautiful, quotable passages. Plus, her words flow easily from one page and one chapter to the next. I read most of this book in one sitting on an airplane, because even though it’s a quiet, character-driven novel as opposed to a fast-paced, plot-driven story, I felt invested in what happened to our protagonists.

Overall, I think readers who gravitate toward heavier, more emotional contemporaries will adore and appreciate this book. It explores grief in a thoughtful way, and these characters will stick with me for a while. I highly recommend checking this one out when it releases in March!

Have you read The Beauty that Remains? If so, who was your favorite POV character? If not, do you plan to pick it up?

New Release: 3-6-2018

The cover of this book is a statement about the beauty within. 4 stories are interwoven with each other to show how different families and teenagers deal with very different kinds of losses in very different ways. It's like Love Actually, if Love Actually was about untimely teenager deaths, those left behind, and the common threads that connect them all together in grief and life.

Ashley Woodfolk's debut novel The Beauty That Remains was provided by Delacourte Press via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

I have read other books like this one. Books that ask the question "How do we deal with those gone too soon?" Cancer deaths, accidents, suicide - you don't have to look far in YA to find these kinds of situations and the effects of the deaths on families and friends. Woodfolk includes ALL of these themes in her debut, but adds another question to the usual YA grief recipe.

How do we move past the loss of a loved one when they are all around us on social media?

The most important part of this novel is how it makes us question the ever-present social media craze. How many selfies does a teenager take in a day and post to Instagram or Snapchat? How many videos on Youtube? What happens when a young person's existence isn't just their body and relationships but also an online presence that can outlive them?

Before there was a cellphone and camera in the hands of every 8-18 year old, if something like this happened we mourned, attended the funerals, felt the missing pieces in our daily lives, and then eventually we found a way to heal over that hole and reshape our world to fit the life without that loved one in it.

How do we heal over a wound when the person isn't truly gone? When we can watch a multitude of videos online and hear their voice and see them move? When their face and comments are everywhere to be seen forever? How do we move on and accept a world without the dead when they haven't completely left us?

The short answer is that we can't. The quick solution is to have a failsafe on an account that deletes it after an amount of time of inactivity or perhaps anyone under 18 must have a parent on the account as well (or if not that, then if an account holder is proven to be under 18, a parent must be provided with the username and password in order to manage or shut down the account). Shut it down is a fast, quick, and easy solution.

The longer answer is that no one is quite sure. This is a question unique to our time, and it's one that mental health professionals, counselors, and families themselves will find a way to answer, hopefully to preserve the sanity and healthy grieving of anyone affected by any of these types of circumstances. A few regulations might not go amiss either, to make sure that social media companies provide the information that grieving families need to heal and move forward, while still remaining legally on point.

Don't rush to this book, because there are a lot of triggering stories and scenarios in it. If you have a fresh, recent loss this book will hurt. It really covers its bases. But if you would like a story that asks some important questions and makes you think about a world that young people are currently living in and figuring out, this is a magnificent book to pick up. Go get you some.

What a lovely debut novel! Full of pain, heartbreak and really fascinating characters. I enjoyed this book with its diverse characters and how their stories wove together.

Our teens lose too many friends and family members due to accidents, suicide, and disease. As an adult, I feel ill-equipped to help them cope. The Beauty That Remains, the stories of three teens who have loved and lost, is a window into the grief and coping mechanisms of these characters. It can provide empathy for those of us who know a teen coping with loss and perhaps a measure of comfort for a teen who thinks "no one gets what I'm going through." Recommend to readers who want a heart-rending story of friendship, love, loss, grief, and some musical interludes.

What a fantastic debut novel! Ashley Woodfolk is definitely an author to look for in the future. Each teen in this story is learning how to cope with life in the aftermath of intolerable loss. Woodfolk tells each of their stories with such emotion and understanding and integrates them seamlessly. Logan, Shay and Autumn are all dealing with loss differently and Woodfolk does a wonderful job of telling their stories. The stories seem so genuine- not neglecting the role of friends, parents and siblings when dealing with loss. Despite being about a difficult topic, this book is so readable and relatable. Teens, young adults and adults and alike will be able to read this book and relate. Wonderful book. I am so glad that I was given the opportunity to read it.

4 stars

Autumn, Shay, and Logan have all lost someone close to them recently, and it’s turned their lives upside down.

Autumn’s best friend, Tavia, was lost to a car crash. Shay’s now left twinless without Sasha. Logan is left even more heartbroken before when his ex-boyfriend Bram overdosed.

They were brought together by music, torn apart by grief. Is music enough to bring them together once more?

This was really good. Really good. So many people will love this novel, and I had a great time reading.

Books about grief are always tricky to write, but I think Woodfolk really went towards it in a unique but tactful way, and she was really able to convey the characters’ stories.

This is probably my favorite part of the book–how relatable the characters were on a non-grief level. They had struggles and issues that many of us could relate to–even if we haven’t lost someone–and that’s what really made this a great book.

They’re a diverse bunch (Autumn’s Asian, Shay’s black, Logan’s gay), and yet they don’t read like “My life is dominated by this one diverse aspect about me” but rather, read like they’re people just like you, even if they’re not straight or white or whatever you are. I really loved this embracing of the diversity in a natural way that really made it interesting and the furthest thing from tokenism.

All the characters had something anyone could relate to and they struggled with things outside of their grief, which was something I really liked.

But the grief aspect itself was also really well done, and I can’t personally comment on “grief done right” if there’s even such a thing, but I think it addressed a lot of the aspects that came with this.

One of the reasons I docked that star was because it didn’t get as intense as I wanted it to. Although this is a contemporary and they don’t usually get that intense, I was really looking for a good cry, but I didn’t get one.

Maybe that means I’m actually emotionally stable for once, but in this case I really do think that I just wasn’t getting that intense gush of emotions that would lead me to cry along with the characters. This was something I always hope to get from books about grief, which was why this was kind of a letdown in this aspect.

But despite this, I think many other people can (and have) related to this and it’s definitely possible this will resonate with you more on the grief aspect than it did with me.

I also had a couple issues just with the structure.

By the end of the story, you’re like “Wow! Woodfolk is a true genius–it all came together and I’m just–asfdjlsk,” but at the beginning, I have to admit I was a little confused.

Initially it was kind of difficult to distinguish between Autumn, Shay, and Logan seeing that they all are in a similar place in their journey (recently lost someone), and the only crosscurrents I was seeing was a like for Unraveling Lovely, the band that Logan used to play in, Shay used to manage, and Autumn used to like partly because her best friend’s brother was someone she had a crush on (I think I got that right).

So the initial relationship between the three was a little fuzzy, but it got clearer throughout the novel and ended up being super fun and enjoyable just to see them intertwine.

Besides that well formation of the plot, I also found this to be well-paced and a pretty quick read. TW for suicide.

Overall, this is a really good book and although I couldn’t connect with it on some aspects as much as other people did, I think you should definitely give this a shot if it seems like something you’d like. It was a fun read and I’m glad I got the chance to read this! I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for Woodfolk and whatever she writes next!

The links will go live on February 24th & will also be shared on Twitter.

The Beauty that Remains really pulled me in right from the beginning. Since there are three distinct narratives going on, I'm going to talk about them in order.

"'You okay? he asks. We say this to each other all the time now, whenever one of us catches the other zoning out; whenever it's clear that we're thinking about you. I nod, even though I'll never be okay again, but I don't know what else to say. I ask him the same question. 'Are you?' And he nods too, completing the circular lie we've been telling each other for days, since we first saw the photo of your car. Lying is the new language we speak. It's the only way we can talk at all."

Autumn's voice is strong and compelling, and I was captivated by the ways in which she dealt with her grief. I immediately felt a connection to her and I wanted to know more - I wanted to help her get through her loss. I also fell in love with Dante because he's a wonderful muffin and I just wanted to eat him up. They are perhaps my new favorite contemporary YA couple.

Autumn is dealing with the loss of her best friend, and her storyline deals a lot with guilt over "what-if" thinking. "What if Autumn had gone with Tavia to that party instead of staying behind? What if Dante had driven her instead of bailing to hang out with Autumn?" What if what if what if? There are so many warped paths your brian can take you down if you allow yourself to rewrite the past over and over. It's a very real struggle, and I appreciate how candid Autumn's letters to Tavia were. How DO you move on when your best friend dies? How do you keep living your life when they're never going to get to finish living theirs?

"They say that dead people who have unfinished business with the living become ghosts. That their spirits linger here, or in limbo somwhere, and that they can't rest in peace until they've done whatever it is that they needed to do. But no one ever talks about the living who have unfinished business with the dead. Where is the plane they're banished to, and how do they ever find peace again?"

Logan was a bit more complicated for me. I didn't really like him very much in the beginning, and while he did grow on me he was never my favorite person. Plus, I felt there were a couple of scenes in his section that were a bit too R-rated for me (when it comes to sex in literature I'm like an 11-year-old).

That being said, his side of the story deals with the pain of not being able to take things back after someone dies. Unlike Autumn, who mostly grieves by writing to her lost loved one, Logan grieves by smothering his feelings in alcohol and other illicit activities. He hides from his grief. I think there is a lot to be learned from him and that redeemed his story arc for me. His ex-boyfriend has committed suicide and Logan can't help but remember their last conversation (their break up conversation) where he said hurtful things that he's regretted ever since but can no longer apologize for. It's shocking and raw to watch him unravel with guilt over it, but no less powerful to see him begin to heal himeslf with music later on.

"There's something I feel from being in this room - a kind of gut understanding. Losing a twin is like losing a leg - you forget how to stand on your own because you never needed to. Everyone in this room is missing a piece of themselves in the same unbearable, unexplainable way that I am."

And then there is Shay, whom I also really liked and rooted for throughout the story. The whole concept of beign "twinless" was absolutely horrible and impoosible to even imagine and my heart just wept for her.

She's dealing with anxiety attacks ever since her twin sister, Sasha, passed away from Lukemia. Even though they knew that Sasha was dying, that doesn't make the pain any less excrutiating now that she's gone. Of all of the characters, Shay has the best support group in the form of her friends. They really come together for her to get her the help she needs, and I applaud that. YA needs more friends like that.

I also liked how the story explored Shay's relationship with her mom, and how they deal with their grief individually and together.

I loved that the three stories connected. At first, jumping from each POV seemed kind of random, but as you read you start to see all of the connections piling up until the three stories converge. It's very well written and I thought that all three protagonists balanced each other out nicely.

While I'm not the biggest music buff out there, I still appreciated how the music tied these indivudals together. My only complaint would be that the music seems rooted in Logan and Shay's stories but seemed a bit "thrown in" in Autumn's. I would have slipped in more music references earlier on in her story.

Other than that, this is a touching and poignant story of loss, love, and moving on when nothing will ever be the same. It's about forging a new future from the ashes of grief and I absolutely loved it.

Rating: 5+/5 stars

Overall, this was a wonderfully written book. The characters were very deep, the tragedies very emotion-wrenching, and the connections between the three intertwining stories were creative and perfect.

First you had Autumn, who had lost her best friend Octavia. She felt guilt over Tavia's death because she had not been with her that night, she had been with Tavia's brother Dante instead of at the party where Tavia had left to go try to make up with her ex-boyfriend Perry. Every chapter begins with Autumn writing a message to Tavia on one of her social media sites, followed by an actual email to her.

Then there was Logan. Logan's ex-boyfriend committed suicide. Logan's guilt comes from the fact that when he broke up with Bram, he said horrible things to him about hoping he died alone. You feel for Logan. I mean he didn't even know he was gay for sure until Bram kissed him. And then when Bram basically broke up with Logan for a girl, it was a huge blow for Logan. Every one of Logan's chapters begins with a post from Bram about how he was so bored he was going to do something, and so it is Logan watching Bram's videos.

Finally there was Shay, who lost her twin sister Sasha to cancer. The beginning of each of Shay's chapters is a band review by Sasha on their BaMF site. Shay is having panic attacks, really bad ones whenever something makes her think about Sasha. A song, a memory, just about anything. She doesn't feel guilty necessarily, but it is hard for her to think about how her mom and Sasha's boyfriend now see Sasha whenever they look at her, and that must be hard for her. Plus learning that she is what is now called "twinless".

All three have a connection to the band Unraveling Lovely, a band that is currently split up. It is this connection that they may be able to use to save each other, save themselves really, help to pull themselves back to life after the death of someone that they each loved more than they can ever say.

I loved all the connections. I liked how little bits that related to each of the losses led to the connections having their issues and separations. The saddest part for me had to do with Bram, and what all we found out had happened between the time he had broken up with Logan, and what it really was that led to his death.

My only complaint is that I struggled a bit to get through it. I had problems remembering who was who at first. Keeping characters and side characters straight between each chapter. That's probably what it was that kept me from being able to get sucked in and not put it down. It was easy to stop reading when I had to put it aside. But it was not easy to pick back up. While it had some great messages, it just wasn't my top read so far. I probably will not spend the money to purchase for my school library, but if someone was asking for a good book about suicide or grief for teens, it would be one I could suggest as a new choice.