Naima and Dew are two teens each struggling with the loss and grief of their parents. Also, each suffers from a mental health issue. While I liked the characters, I felt the story moved slowly and wasn’t able to connect as much as I would have liked.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Beyond amazing I enjoyed this book so very much. The characters and storyline were fantastic. The ending I did not see coming Could not put down nor did I want to.

Gorgeously written. Ganger has a great grasp of perspective here--the dual POV is clear, distinct, and engrossing. The novel draws two deeply complex and, at times, very difficult characters. Heartfelt OwnVoices rep and some very difficult topics handled with grace.

My only wish is that those wonderful characters inhabited a book with a little more story. I never got the sense of the shape of the plot, and probably could have skimmed the middle section. At times, it felt like two characters just wandering around until the page count was up.

Mini-review to come (based on those paragraphs) to accompany Q&A for blog tour.

Losing a loved one is never easy, especially if you’re holding onto guilt. This was a good story about finding new friends you can lean on and learning to say goodbye. I wanted to like this one more but it was a bit slow unfortunately.

This book is about two teenagers who have to face tragedies. And they have to struggle with the consequences. Dew has social anxiety. And Naima has some disorders combined: OCD(obsessive - compulsive disorder), GAD
( generalized anxiety disorder), PTSD(post-traumatic stress disorder).
I thought that this book would be ideal to hear those voices that we don't usually listen to. But, unfortunately, I couldn't connect with the story. I liked the characters. And they did help me to understand a little bit better.
The problem was the pace of the story. It was that slow... I couldn't even finish it. And it doesn't happen to me that much. Sorry.

This was a strong and powerful #ownvoices novel that I'm very glad was offered to me by Wednesday Books.

The representation in this novel is unreal. Bi-racial latinix characters, a bi/pan main character with OCD, GCD, PTSD and depression, and another main character with social anxiety.

While I don't suffer from the same mental illnesses as Dew and Naima do, I found these characters to be very relatable. We all have our own personal issues, each manifesting from different experiences, and how we deal with them is often unique. Naima takes control of her life by counting seconds, separating marshmallows from Lucky Charms cereal, and needing to do things in 6. Dew dives into his favourite music and hides behind his tape recorder, speaking in and through it at times.

Likewise, their grief is something I know everyone can relate to. It strikes every person at some point in their life, and processing it is harder for some. Both Naima and Dew are desperate to figure out who they are, and what it means to be them when the biggest parts of their lives are taken from them. For Naima, that was her father, who was killed in action. Was she the cause of his leaving, and how is she supposed to carry on as she has been? For Dew, he lost both his parents in a car accident and now has a new family. I liked reading how these two revolved around each other, pushing towards and away from the help and friendship they can offer each other.

My problem with this book was it wasn't engaging. It was emotional, yes, but it did not draw me in and leave me dying whenever I put it down. There was very little plot aside from Naima and Dew going through the motions of their day-to-day life in Ivy Springs. I was tempted to DNF several times, and now that I've finished I realize I could have skimmed 75% of the book without really missing anything.

Looking forward to participating in the blog tour with an author Q+A.

There is a lot to like about this book. Both the main characters are truly broken people- and for good reason. Their ways of dealing with their individual losses are very different, and I really appreciated this because everyone deals with things in their own ways.

I just wish the two character voices were more distinctive. Because they were both grieving for lost parents and dealing with complex mental health issues, it was difficult to know who we were following section to section. It got easier toward the end once we knew all the supporting characters and who was important in whose life, but early on, I became confused.

It was also difficult to actually like Naima. I feel like this was intentional, but it's difficult to get into a story when you really wish the MC would fall into a ditch so you didn't need to listen to her whining for a while.

That said, I think the portrayals of the various different coping mechanisms and quirks each of the characters had were very realistic. I also really liked that the adult characters around these broken people let them be themselves and find their own ways to deal with their various issues. They were all supportive and present and loving, but didn't go over the top in trying to 'cure' the kids in their care.

So while I didn't love this one, I did like aspects of it.

Thanks to NetGalley for giving me the chance to read it before release.

This book was a story about grief and finding yourself after something happens that you and the moments of moving on.
I enjoyed this book and really enjoyed the little snippets of past phone calls and emails plus watching different friendships and how grief spreads out and affects different people

This book ended up giving me a lot of different feelings and not always great ones. I grew frustrated with the characters, didn’t always like them, wanted to yell at them, for me though I like books that can invoke those feelings

However there was something missing, the side characters need more to help add to the movement of the story the plot was kinda confusing

I think it’s a super interesting concept and I loved all the diversity in it.

Six Goodbyes We Never Said by Candace Ganger
Overview: Naima struggles with OCD, PTSD, and GAD as well as her father's death overseas while serving in the army. It's extra painful because it happened on a tour he was never supposed to be on, on a date he was already supposed to be home celebrating Naima's 17th birthday. She goes to spend the summer in her dad's hometown with her grandparent's, processing her grief and struggles.
Dew is adopted and has recently moved to his new town with his new family. He's still stuck in his parent's loss, and the loss has triggered a deep social anxiety that he has to learn to overcome. The two neighbors have to overcome deep hurtles to meet each other and start healing together. Overall: 3.5

Characters: 4 Overall, I did like Naima and Dew. Naima struggles with a lot of mental illness issues on top of her complicated grief and resentment towards her dad. They were super close, but, over the last year, Naima had cut him off as a way to cope with her abandoned feelings.
My favorite part about these characters is the support systems they have. None of them are perfect, but they all try so hard. Dew's adoptive parents Stella and Thomas try their very best to understand and help both Dew and Faith. Naima's grandparents, despite having lost a son, channel all of their energy into helping her get through her grief.

Plot: 3 I had a real struggle with the story itself. The problem is that the story is not grippingly internal enough to be a super character driven exploration while also not having enough action or external conflict or development to keep you interested. It eventually got into a groove, but I felt like the last 20% (I read it on my Kindle so I don't know the exact pages) dragged on forever.
I also had a very hard time keeping the date/time straight as the story progressed. Time didn't have a seamless transition when moving between Dew and Naima which was really jarring. It made me feel like I could never get grounded enough in the story to connect with it.

Writing: 4 I do have to commend Ganger on her ability to write two separate POVs with very strong voices that are identifiable. There were some issues with the dual POV, but the voice was on point. I also do want to note that in the ARC, there was a very nice author's note that talked about her personal connection to the material and explicitly listed the mental illnesses Naima and Dew battle with (which is helpful as a reader and reviewer) and gives potential triggers. I'm not sure how much of this information will carry into the final version, but I hope this content appears somewhere as it was very thoughtful and helpful.

Six Goodbyes We Never Said is told in a dual perspective. Naima moves in with her grandparents after the terrible loss of her father. On top of this she’s also dealing with OCD and an anxiety disorder. Dew is her grandmothers neighbour. He lives with his adoptive family after losing both of his parents suddenly.

The writing was stunning and both perspectives were distinct. This allowed me to easily connect to both main characters - something I think is super important in a book with more than one main character.

I struggled to place the plot and it seemed to drag - but I felt the brilliant character development made up for that in most parts.

This book deals with hard hitting topics such as mental illness and grief and handles them both fantastically. I also appreciated that the book had a trigger warning in the authors note - something I wish more books would have.

Overall, this was a good book - the writing was superb, characters amazing, however, the plot aspect let the book down in my opinion.

I really just couldn't get into this, and that makes me very sad.

Things I appreciated:
-It looks at how different people approach loss. I've been seeing more of that in YA (including The Art of Taxidermy), and that's definitely a good thing.
-Talked specifically about General Anxiety Disorder (GAD) and OCD.
-THERAPY! I really want to see more therapy in novels, especially YA and middle grade. That can help get rid of some of the stigma around therapy, which would be huge.

Why I couldn't engage:
-The format: It's not just that galleys don't have the final format, I just couldn't engage with the way that Dew's chapters started. Also, by the time I was starting to engage with either POV, it switched and took me out.

I really like the idea of the book, but it wasn't for me.

I sadly had to DNF this book. I really wanted to like the story, but I just found it pretty uninteresting and not very entertaining. The book formatting was a little confusing (though not sure if this is a problem with Netgalley or the book itself), the character's storylines were coming at me too fast, and I just couldn't get interested in the book. I may come back to it one day or once the FC is released, but at this moment I sadly have to DNF.

Naima is dealing with the loss of her father who she had a strained relationship with and Dew is trying to figure out his place in the world now that his parents have died in a car accident.

Their mental illnesses and awkwardness makes it difficult to establish a healthy friendship with each other but they try to navigate it.

Overall it was a good YA contemporary novel that deals with loss in an open way.

* I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.*
Lately YA contemporaries have been a real miss for me and although I loved the idea of this book and some of the storyline, in the whole, it was disappointing. I could not find a way to connect to any of these characters. I don’t need to understand them, I just need one small connection to invest in the story. Grief can be such a powerful life changer but I felt this book didn’t not encompass that feeling.
I read a lot of YA and know that I am not the target audience for this book. I do believe it could benefit from some further editing.

Naima has OCD and GAD and is trying to navigate her way through the grief of the the death of her military father, the one who kept leaving even when he said he wouldn't. Dew is also dealing with the loss of his parents, choosing to say the things that he can't into an audio recorder. The entrance of each other into the others lives change things in a way they couldn't have imagined and theirs lives won't ever be the same.

This book is a very honest look into the realities of loss, mental health, and friendship. I like that it is in no way a love story, but rather a "getting through it" story. The story is told through both characters perspectives, but also through Naima's dad's voicemails, the emails she never sent to him, and Dew's audio recordings. Because of all the types of writing it took a little bit to get into the book, but once I got used to how it was laid out it was easier to follow.

I grew to really enjoy this book and Naima and Dew's journey which felt real and unique from other stories I have read.

This book was ultra confusing with a plot that just didn't get off the ground until I got to 3/4 of the way through the book. An intertwining story of 2 adolescences dealing with loss and grief, supported by many people, but the characters were too plentiful, that once again, I did not follow who was who or why they were important until almost the end, and there are still one or two people that I cannot identify who or what they belong to. But surprisingly the story comes together a bit but far, far too late in the book. I cannot recommend as it took too long to get the story off the ground.

First off, I LOVE the fact that we are getting so many title in YA that feature characters with disabilities! As an avid reader who had disabilities, I love that "Six Goodbyes We Never Said" is diverse. The story itself is impactful and everyone need to read it.

In Six Goodbyes We Never Said, Candace Ganger clearly portrays the delicate balance of being young, dealing with loss, and struggling with mental illness. The main characters, Naima and Dew, are dealing with situations beyond their control, but there are personal choices that they are able to make day to day. The internal voices seemed genuine and there was no sugar coating of the hardships of dealing with mental health concerns. The book incorporates correspondence and written chapters along with changing narratives. These different perspectives are important to understanding the different ways the characters view themselves, their worlds, and their futures. I would recommend this book to older teens (there is some real-world language) or those going through loss trying to figure out how to get through each day.

Six Goodbyes We Never Said is an honest reflection of the complications and messiness of grief, an upfront and realistic portrayal of mental health and an ode to friendship and family, which can sometimes be as weird and tangled as it can be necessary and life saving. This book unfurls the journey of grief in a compelling and frank way, at times moving while other times delightfully amusing. It’s the perfect book for reflective readers or those who need something or someone to relate to when the world around them doesn’t reflect back what they see in the mirror.

Naima and Dew are what mainstream society would wrongly label as outsiders. Those who are different or who behave differently from society’s perception of acceptable or normalised behaviour. Both are struggling, not only under the heavy burden of grief so complex they can hardly speak of it, but with social anxiety (Dew) and the rituals and counting patterns (Naima) that has become a part of their every day existences. In each other they find someone who is facing the same complex emotional roller coaster.

When Naima, after the death of her Marine father, moves in with her grandparents, Dew, who live next door with his foster parents, is sure their shared grief makes them destined to be together. Naima is certain the boy next door with his voice recorder is someone she needs to avoid. She’s got enough going on, with missed birthday rituals, the urn of her father’s ashes sitting at the kitchen table and the numerous voice messages and letters from her father that she never responded to. But sometimes, grief shared can help and sometimes friendship can appear in the places you least expect it.

Naima and Dew are such honest, complex characters, and it was a delight to read their story. They couldn’t be more different, Naima in your face, brutally honest, Dew polite and so desperate to help others. Yet they are both consumed with their grief. Their friendship is unlikely, and stumbles and trips on its way from enmity (Naima) and blind hope (Dew) to something that is understanding and supportive.

Family, both the loss of and the gaining of, is a key theme of Six Goodbyes We Never Said. Watching Dew bond with his foster sister and foster parents, while still honouring and remembering the bond he had with his biological parents was lovely. And Faith, Dew’s foster sister, is so awesome and such a fantastic part of the book.

Six Goodbyes We Never Said, with its blend of humour, touching character development and poignant moments is both moving and funny. A great YA contemporary title I will enjoy recommending to readers.

The publishers provided an advanced readers copy of this book for reviewing purposes. All opinions are my own.

I didn't love this as much as I was hoping to BUT, the characters in this are really well developed and the story is nicely paced. There are a couple of plot holes that make it feel a little choppy but if you can move past this, you'll find a really great story about love and loss. With some diverse characters that lead the charge and some great issues addressed, this book can easily find an audience for contemporary YA readers.