A powerful and emotional debut that’s full of heart. A book sure to pull at your heartstrings and make an impact on you.

A nicely written story that addresses the multiple layers involved when a loved one willingly takes their own lives. The author did a nice job addressing the betrayal and loss of trust involved with this particular type of loss and eventually finding your way out of the feelings to embrace life again.

I was really interested to see how Lila dealt with the grief of losing her father to suicide in this book. I found it to be thoughtfully portrayed in a way that could be helpful to a young person finding themselves in a similar situation.

The focus seemed to shift more to a love story in the second half of the book, which I was a little surprised by.

Overall a nice read in the vein of John Green.

I normally can relate to YA books but this one is a lil different. The story is interesting, it tackles grief and strong emotions of a young lady who lose her dad on suicide and got sent on a camp whos participants went through the same thing. I mean, I am pro moving on, but for a story who have a powerful message to sends about grief and moving on, this one seems to focus on Lila and her romance. It felt a bit off. but anyway, it is still a good read, it have so many wonderful points.

I should have known better than to accept this one. As a self-professed John Green hater and someone who doesn't read much contemporary (unless it's very, very queer), I was destined not to love The Half-Orphan's Handbook. That's not to say it doesn't have its good points: normalizing and unpacking the less pretty and less rational side-effects of grief, characters approaching grief from so many different directions, and open communication between characters during conflict.

However, one of the biggest things that keeps me reading is curiosity. A book has to offer me a question and keep picking at it until it unravels. And this book didn't really do that for me. We know going in that experiencing camp is going to help Lila come to terms with her grief, which is a very self-contained plot line, and doesn't leave a whole lot of room for questions.

💙 Ms. Smith has penned a beautiful coming-of-age tale dealing with grief and loss. Sixteen-year-old Lila has lost her father to suicide. In an effort to protect herself from further hurt from those she loves, she has decided the best solution is to love no one. At a summer-long grief camp, Lila learns there is more to her dad’s suicide than she first thought. Her journey battling through heartache and learning to live again is told with sensitivity, hopefulness, and even a bit of humor. With a wonderful cast of characters, Ms. Smith’s debut YA novel is touching and heartfelt, not to be missed.

I don't remember where I came across the ARC form for this book, only that when I saw it was a YA about a girl who'd lost her dad and learned to deal with it at a summer grief camp, I immediately hit request.

THE HALF-ORPHAN'S HANDBOOK was a hard book to read, though different enough from my own experience to make me feel like a spectator. My father's death was due to an unpreventable and unexpected heart attack. Lila's was due to addiction and suicide. Where I felt only sadness towards my father, Lila also felt anger and shame. It was this major difference in our grief that allowed me to read it without sinking, which is something I still have to be careful with to this day.

I've read several negative reviews regarding the underage drinking and sex in this book, but honestly? Non-grieving teenagers do that too. It's not really a huge turn-off for me, especially in older YA, but if that's a deal-breaker for you, then maybe give this one a skip.

Personally? I loved this book. I did. The honest representation of the spectrum of grief we get is beyond powerful, and I am so grateful to Joan F. Smith for using her own experiences with parental loss via suicide to craft a story that I'm sure will help many teenagers out there feel truly seen.

I mean, do dad death stories still trigger me? Sometimes. But do I still seek them out? Occasionally, yeah. There's a reason grief camps and grief programs exist. We all want to be understood without having to explain, and Joan F. Smith is able to give us that because she's been through it herself. Differing opinions aside, #OwnVoices is a thing for a reason. And when reading about parental grief, I tend to selectively opt for the authors who belong to the #DeadParentClub themselves. Sure, anyone can write a dead parent story. But if you know, you know, and those books just hit different.

Thank you, Joan. Truly. I can't wait for this one to debut next month. And for those of you still reading - I highly highly recommend y'all save this one to your lists.

*this e-arc was sent to me by the publisher to give an honest review in return*

This was such an amazingly written book! It’s about a girl named Lila who loses her father to suicide and is sent to a summer grief camp where she sets up two unbreakable rules for herself. Once Lila gets to camp, she realizes there is more about her family that she doesn’t know about and started to find answers.

The author’s writing was just well done for this book. It was a raw and emotional book that was written in the right way. The author has been through a similar journey (from what I read in the author’s note) and you can tell it from their writing. I thought the pacing was well done for this book and I enjoyed the setting of the camp. This book sends the right messages but you must go through the Pai Paul journey in order to receive them.

Lila is the main character of the book and it’s written in her POV. She goes through grief and pain but develops throughout the story. I enjoyed the adventures she had in this book like making friends, taking care of her brother, having a crush but also finding the answers she needs. There were some great side characters that helped her out throughout the book and I especially enjoyed Lila’s close friends in this book. They each have their own reason why they are at the camp and I enjoyed seeing their developments too. There is minor romance in this book but there is still some of it.

The ending was well done for the book and the way it needed to be ended. The reason this book didn’t get 5/5 stars is that it wasn’t my favorite read but it was still a great book overall. This book was great though and I will for sure be reading more from this author. I recommend this book to fans of John Green and Jennifer Niven.

The Half-Orphan's Handbook is one of those books that nails the perfect balance between light-heartedness and cheer, and the sombre themes of grief, guilt and loss. The exploration into loss and acceptance was both sensitive and thought-provoking, the writing metaphorical, sprinkled with deep nuances I appreciated. The characters and their relationships were all so beautiful and heartfelt, and like friendships hello - something rarely focused on in YA.

Truly one to anticipate with its release on 6 April! I'm part of the blog tour for this book at the end of the month so do look out for my full review then!

This book was hauntingly beautiful and captured grief in a really accurate light. I think the way suicide wa s handled was also done really well. It’s not often you find books dealing with grief, mental illness, or addiction with such care.

This book will hook you. You will feel Lila’s pain, anger, heartache, and cheer for her to move through her grief.

This book was honestly just really good.

When Lila's father takes his own life, Lila's mother insists she attend a "grief camp"; Lila wants nothing to do with the camp (or anything else in her life, really) but agrees to give it a one-week trial. What ensues is a sweet and tender journey of healing and learning to love again after heartbreak. Readers who have personal experience with the themes in this story will recognize the truth in each of these characters and the painstaking care the author takes to depict their very real struggles; the traditional summer camp setting provides the perfect setting for not only healing, but the kind of coming of age explorations that every YA reader will identify with.

This book kind of messed me up. Not only is it a beautiful and realistic story about love and loss and grief and life, but it’s written SO well at times it felt like poetry. It was as if nothing was too vulnerable to discuss, even when it was the words danced across the page in a way that felt moving and fair. I wanted to hug so many people in this book at so many times. The best take away was that no one is perfect, life is complex and that the truth can sometimes have different truths, depending on who you know. If you or anyone you know has lost someone, this is a great book for healing. Thank you to NetGallery for my advanced copy, it was well worth the read.

In this book the author tackles a heavy topic with humor, hope, and sweetness. I loved the large cast of characters, the summer camp setting, the sex-positive romance, and the diverse representation. A fresh, touching, and uplifting read! I love the authors writing style and the summer camp setting brought back memories!!

The Half-Orphan's Handbook is a book about dealing with the sudden loss of a parent at a young age. The main character is a relatable mess of anger and sadness that anyone who has dealt with the loss of a parent will recognize. Lila's journey through the five stages of grief with the help of a camp full of strangers dealing with similar losses is recognizable and full of good advice for others that are facing similar circumstances in their actual lives without seeming preachy or over the top.

Really powerful and well-written book that addresses the grief that follows after a parent commits suicide. At a summer camp that sixteen-year-old Lila did NOT want to attend, specifically for kids who've experienced a death of a family member, Lila learns to let herself love and trust again, as she writes and rewrites rules for herself in her Half-Orphan's Handbook. Putting in the work of healing and forgiving is terrifying when she'd rather spend her summer reading alone in her room... but as Lila learns, "life keeps going on," and she must learn to do the same. An excellent book, especially for anyone grappling with grief.

The Half-Orphan’s Handbook by Joan F Smith
Thank you to Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on April 6th, 2021.

A well-written book about a young girl going through the grief of her father’s recent suicide. Lila is 16 and has been reluctantly cajoled into attending a grief camp for the summer. This is the story of her slow journey towards healing, including a healthy amount of new friends, a budding love interest, and that irreverent teen style that helps makes the unbearable, bearable.

The author, who went through a similar experience, does an excellent job at describing the confusion of competing feelings, the different ways grief hits you at different times, and the eventual return to the three Ls: laughing, loving, and living without guilt. I really liked all the characters, and I want to emphasize that this was not at all a depressing book — there was a lot of honest reflection, observation, and fun. Plenty of racial and sexual diversity as well as discussions of addiction, suicide, and first love.

The Half-Orphan's Handbook follows Lila as she reluctantly heads to grief camp for the summer after the recent suicide of her father. Once there, she meets new friends and a falls for a boy, and with their support, plus that of the camp founder, eventually begins the painful process of healing. This story obviously deals with heavy topics, but it's beautifully told and has many light and funny moments as well. I really enjoyed the author's writing style as well as the unfolding of this story. Coming to grips with death, especially that of a parent, is an excruciatingly slow process and I thought the story portrayed that well. No one saves Lila or heals her--she realizes she has to put in all the hard work herself. The summer camp setting was so relatable and brought back many memories of my own teenage years, and I thought the romantic relationship was realistic and sweet. I really enjoyed this book!

I loved the characters and the depth of the story and the time spent at summer camp grieving and healing. I think Joan F. Smith brings humor and a sense of hope and strength to this very heavy topic. But I felt a little bit like she moved past everything very quickly and used her summer romance to heal. It is a really sweet romance. I just think one person can't completely help heal you or make you better from grieving. I recently lost my father, not to suicide, but I am still grieving and hurt.
But this is a really well written book that a lot of teens will like and be able to relate to the characters in some way.

Thanks NetGalley for this ARC!

I had sort of mixed feelings about this book. On one hand, the "half-orphan" rep was very good in some places; on the other hand, Lila's emotional recovery was too quick to be realistic and the book seemed to imply that her romantic relationship with Noah "healed" her, which I did not like at all.

This story was absolutely lovely! Joan Smith tackles a heavy topic with humor, hope, and sweetness. The tone is great for both lower and upper ranges of YA—it never gets too dark to handle. I loved the large cast of characters, the summer camp setting, the sex-positive romance, and the POC and LGBT+ representation. A fresh, touching, and uplifting read!