Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book.

I don't think I was expecting how much this one ended up hurting my heart. A YA novel about dealing with grief. Dealing with losing a loved one is hard enough, it's even harder when you survive the accident that killed them. and that's what happened to Nina's brother Leo and her boyfriend, East who survived the drunk driver accident that killed Nina. This is the first time I think I have ever read a book where the timeline goes backwards. I do feel like it was very repetitive and eventually I just wanted to get through it, but, despite dealing with a tough topic, it was well written.

The format was interesting at first. We make some assumptions about what happened in the past that are clarified as the book progresses. It began to lose it's charm about halfway through, when the general gist of the plot was pretty clear and it was only some specific details that were lacking. It isn't likely to hold up to repeat reads.

I really loved Far From the Tree, so I was looking forward to this title - and it didn't disappoint. This was a great read and is an excellent addition to a library or a personal collection.

A very compelling and wrenching story with a well written and interesting structure that draws the reader in.

I so badly wanted to love this one. I did enjoy it, I didn’t love it and I think a lot of that comes from the fact that its told in reverse chronological order. It starts one year after an accident with the last chapters being the night of the accident and before. For me I found it didn’t flow nicely and I felt some of the moments in the book lose their significance because you see the outcome before what leads up to that outcome.

With it going backwards though you do get to see their grief and how far they come in dealing with it. The ending did have a small twist that I wasn’t expecting but also didn’t love.

While this one was a good read, I really didn’t love the reverse order. I would however be open to reading more from this author!

Thank you to HarperCollins Children's Books, HarperTeen.

Thank you to Net Galley and Harper Teen for allowing me to read an Advanced Reader Copy of this title. I have previously read another book by this author and enjoyed it. This novel dealt with the topic of grief as the main character, Leo struggled with the emotions of losing her older sister Nina. Leo was with Nina the night of the accident but cannot remember the details of what happened. As the story unfolds, the reader sees how Leo interacts with her family, students and teachers at her school, and East, Nina’s boyfriend.
This novel is unique in that it goes backward in time. With each chapter the reader moves closer to finding out what has happened the night of the accident. I liked the way the novel was structured. However, it took some time for me to get invested in the story and was hard to follow because of the rate I was reading. I think if I would have read this faster and in fewer settings, I would have enjoyed it more.

***Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher who provided me with a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.***

I'm really sad to report that this book wasn't for me! "Far from the Tree" was so good, with such well developed plot and characters, but Benway's most recent book felt distant from her previous writing.

"A Year to the Day" is about sophomore high school student, Leo, and the grief she has experienced in the past year after losing her sister. Rather than starting with the inciting incident and moving forward in time, this book starts a year out (hence the title) and progresses backwards until the day before the accident that killed her sister.

The premise sounds interesting, but for me, it fell flat for a few reasons. The problem with structuring the book in reverse without revisiting the moment in time we start at is that there isn't much potential for character growth (in fact, you'd expect them to regress as we move back in time). While in retrospect, I could remember how different beginning-of-the-book Leo was to end-of-the-book Leo, it didn't really help me engage with the characters, with whom I never felt a strong connection. Theoretically since Leo also mentions she can't remember anything about the accident (dissociative amnesia), the conflict should have felt tense enough as we learn more about what actually happened nearing and on the date of the accident. But when we got there, I felt like the reveal was not worth spending the entire book leading up to it. And I think I would have much rather read how Leo dealt with learning the truth rather than her dealing with grief backwards for a year, never the wiser to what actually occurred!

It was an easy read, though not in content, and the ending was written well. It's unfortunate that the structure didn't work for me because I think if it were told in the chronological order, I would have ended up loving this one!

Having read from this author before, I should have known that this book would hit me in the feels. Benway shows immense skill through crafting a narrative that travels backwards in time, not something I usually like. The way that she manages this builds investment into the characters so that the reveal that comes in the second to last chapter hits like a gut punch. I highly recommend this book.

I really enjoyed this book, which traces the life of Leo backward in time from one year to the day of the car accident that killed her sister until the accident itself and the hours leading up to it. The author does a great job of showing how teenage Leo and her mom experience grief in the wake of the car accident. Also, the sequencing of the book keeps the plot moving along and allows the author to delve into a topic that would probably be boring to read about in a forward-moving, linear fashion. Although this book is technically marketed toward a teen audience, I would also recommended it for adult readers who are interested in a book about grief that isn't super heavy to read.

A Year to the Day, by Robin Benway, follows a girl named Leo as she grieves the tragic loss of her sister, Nina, in a car accident over the course of a year. The narrative moves backwards, starting at the memorial service on the anniversary of Nina's death, with each chapter describing a different moment throughout the year, culminating in the actual accident and the events leading up to it that night.

The narrative structure to the story lends an interesting angle to Leo's story, since we see her reactions to events before we see the actual events. One might think that this would steal any sense of surprise from the work, but it rather adds to it, lending the book a feeling of a mystery being solved as the reader gradually uncovers the specifics of events that had been referenced earlier in the book. Finding out the actual story of the accident at the end of the book is very rewarding because of this. While this narrative structure might not be every reader's first choice, I certainly enjoyed it.

Benway is very talented at depicting complicated sibling relationships. While her 2017 book, Far From the Tree, depicts siblings who were separated and adopted into different families discovering each other and learning about each other, A Year to the Day depicts a girl who is having to learn to live without her sister. Nina had always been Leo's best friend, so losing her means not only losing her sister, but also leaves her adrift without much of a support network beyond her grieving family and Nina's ex-boyfriend.

Although Leo is the central character, it is also wonderful to see how the rest of her family copes with their grief through her eyes. She is flawed in her judgement occasionally, but Benway does a lovely job of showing each character's distinct journey and personal ways of coping. Although I luckily cannot personally speak to the mourning process after losing a close family member, each character has their own journey influenced by their own experiences that certainly feels very real and natural to the reader.

Perhaps the most rewarding part of the book was the opportunity to gradually learn about Nina through the other character's recollections until the reader actually meets her in the final chapters before the accident. That, perhaps, is the largest benefit to the unique narrative structure of this book: it allows for Nina, who is perhaps the most important character in the storyline, to be gradually learned about and eventually live in the final chapters, rather than be introduced at the beginning only to be killed off immediately before the reader grows to care much about her.

I cannot recommend this book enough. Robin Benway has long been one of my favorite contemporary authors, and, while A Year to the Day doesn't quite live up to Far From the Tree for me, I truly did love this book. It is lovely and heartbreaking and expertly-written with a real love for, and knowledge of, each character. Although a young adult book, adults will certainly find much to love about this book as well. I'm giving A Year to the Day 5/5 stars.

I appreciate the challenge to write a book with a plot going through reverse but it was difficult to follow and to engage in with this topic.

(english review below)

C’est un roman qui aborde des thématiques touchantes et confrontantes. À travers l’histoire de Leo et d’East, l’autrice parle d’accident, de deuil, de reconstruction. J’ai été quelque peu bouleversée par cette lecture, qui m’a rappelé à quel point la vie pouvait se terminer bien vite et abruptement. Il ne faut pas grand-chose pour passer de vie à trépas et c’était douloureux de se le rappeler via ce roman. C’était douloureux de suivre Leo et East qui essayent d’avancer depuis la perte de leur chère aimée.
Malgré quelques longueurs et des dialogues que j’ai trouvés parfois peu naturelles, c’est une lecture sensible que j’ai bien aimé et que j’ai lu rapidement !

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ENGLISH REVIEW:

This is a book that tackles touching and confronting themes. Through the story of Leo and East, the author speaks of accident, mourning, reconstruction. I was somewhat overwhelmed by this reading, which reminded me of how quickly and abruptly life could end. It doesn't take much to go from life to death and it was painful to remember it through this story. It was painful to follow Leo and East trying to move on since the loss of their beloved.
Despite some lengths and dialogues that I sometimes found unnatural, it was a sensitive reading that I enjoyed and that I read quickly!

Review will appear on Forever Young Adult blog on July 6, 2022:

Cover Story: Dizzy With Boredom

This is supremely boring and until I sat down to write this section I didn’t even look at the cover closely. I’m guessing it’s streaks of stars moving swiftly to show us the passage of time. It’s a solid effort to keep to a theme, but…yawn.

The Deal:

When Leo wakes up this morning it will have been exactly a year to the day since the car accident that killed her older sister, Nina. She’s not okay—she’ll never be okay about losing her best friend—but Leo’s made a certain peace with how her life looks: new baby sister from her dad and step-mom, new friends, and a unique, trauma-bonded friendship with her sister’s boyfriend, East.

Leo’s story proceeds backwards as we draw closer to that fateful night when her family’s entire world shattered, including the moments surrounding the accident that Leo cannot remember.

BFF Charm: Let Me Love You

Choosing a Big Sister charm seemed gauche, but I do wish I could be a surrogate sis for Leo to confide in when she’s spiraling at 2 a.m. all alone. If I had grown up with an extroverted sibling who let me hang out with them and was my best friend, I probably would’ve been a similar kind of teen as Leo: not a ton of friends, a little shy and awkward, feeling my most confident around those who made me feel seen and loved. We’re not seeing Leo at her best in this book, but with time healing scabbing over all wounds, I can see her becoming a cool chick to hang out with.

Swoonworthy Scale: 2

There has been plenty in the trend of dead sibling books where the one left behind gets closer to the sibling’s now single significant other. Being that we see how East and Leo interact “at the end” in the very first chapter, I was curiously reading through the preceding chapters to see if there were hints of angst or guilty yearning. But it wasn’t really that kind of book, though Leo and East did have some unexpected chemistry (which felt understandable being that they were both people Nina was attracted to being around).

Talky Talk: A Lovely, Failed Experiment

Firstly, there is something about Robin Benway’s writing that I am drawn to, especially when I’m in an introspective mood. (And as I picked this up the day after Roe v. Wade was overturned, it’s safe to say I was a bundle of effing emotions.) Her prose is fairly straightforward, but there’s something about the human condition that she, as a person, gets and then is able to easily convey where you’re just like, damn, yeah. I’ve felt that. I’ve been there. Leo would be thinking about her sister and her grief, then Benway would drop a moment I’ve lived through and there I’d go, sobbing:

The problem with the worst thing happening to you, Leo thinks, is that it makes every other scary thought not just possible but suddenly, menacingly probable, and her brain knows this, presents them all at her feet at two o’clock in the morning when there’s nothing and no one for her to reach for in the darkness.

Her mom could die. Her dad could die. Something could happen to Stephanie, or maybe all three of them? What if they’re in a car together without Leo and she’s left all alone?

Maybe that’s the worst part, Leo thinks as she rolls onto her back and puts her hand over her pounding chest. That nobody can tell her that it’s okay, that it’s not possible, because it is possible, and eventually, she will be alone. Nina was supposed to be by her side forever and now she’s not.

And even though I did cry through a lot of this book, they weren’t all SAD tears. There were some lovely moments between Leo and all three of her parents, or with her new friend, Madison, that were emotional because they were sweet and special.

But.

This “going backwards in time every chapter” was a choice, and after sitting with it for a few days, I don’t think it ultimately worked for me. I’m curious to see what the reasoning was for this style—was it wanting to give you the hope up front, so you knew Leo made it through the worst year of her life? (Some people purposefully always reading the last chapter first so they aren’t in suspense.) But reading conversations between characters about an event I hadn’t yet witnessed, then going TO that event in the next chapter where I know the outcome…I didn’t care for it. I think some people may really love the style for its uniqueness, but others are going to DNF quickly, and that sucks because I think there’s a good story getting mired down in stylistic structure.

So, Reader, I cheated. I read the book “properly” until about 40% in, when I got too frustrated that I wasn’t getting as lost in the story because I was constantly referencing the TOC to figure out how many days had passed between chapters. So I flipped to the last chapter and read it, then flipped back two chapters and read that. I read the book in “chronological” story order until I met up with where I left off, and then I kept going to skim the first chapters I’d read to really soak it all in. I liked this much better. It was a labor-intensive way to read though, and some won’t have the patience I had because I already knew Benway’s writing was worth it.

Bonus Factor: Awesome Step-Parents

I loved Leo’s positive relationship with her step-mom, Stephanie. There could have been plenty of resentment from Leo’s end, especially as her mom struggled with her grief alone and a new baby sister was thrown into the mix, but they supported each other and had some sweet moments that (yes, you guessed it) made me cry.

Anti-Bonus Factor: Mysteries…?

One other thing that didn’t quite work for me was the “mystery” surrounding Leo’s missing memories from maybe ten minutes before the accident to her waking up with the paramedics hovering over her. Without “spoiling” it, while it would have been hard information for Leo to know, it didn’t really have any bearing on the story itself aside from making some drama between her and East since he obviously remembered everything. There’s even a moment in the first chapter (a year later) when you realize that Leo may have suddenly remembered, but then it’s not even addressed again so…yeah.

Relationship Status: Support Group Friends

You opened up slowly, Book, but I never felt anything but supported by you, and I hope you felt the same. We’ve got an unorthodox relationship, and maybe we’ll be “friends for a season” and not for a lifetime, but I wish you all the best all the same.

FTC Full Disclosure: I received my free review copy from HarperTeen. I received neither money nor peanut butter cups in exchange for this review. A Year to the Day is available now

This book is so sad but such a good look into what grief can look like. I loved the format of rewinding through time to the accident. At times that format was slightly confusing but it made it interesting. It was also an emotional book to read in parts, you could feel the grief on the page.

I certainly understand what was being attempted here ( A year to the day = retracing the year backwards "to the day" the accident happened) but I think an otherwise impactful story about grief and love and where those emotions go when someone dies was overshadowed by a clunky backwards narrative.

I was initially intrigued by the backwards plot but after a time it gets to be frustrating that you never really see anyone grow as a character by the very nature of the storytelling. If anything you're watching them revert and its very unsatisfying as a reader. I feel the same effect could've bee accomplished with significant flashbacks that are spurred on by seeing images on the phone which is chronologically the last thing happening.
I thought our lead, Leo, was great. She has very strong feelings about the event and is left in the dark about as much as we are about what happened. I never do really feel like we learned what Leo likes and wants to do with her life as this book mainly focuses on coping and adapting but more fleshing out of Leo's pre-accident life may have helped. Again, the nature of the book sort of prevents this.
There are moments that are great though. Leo has super devastating and emotional conversations with her step-mom, dad, and sister's boyfriend through the course of the novel and the Thanksgiving entry was difficult to read but impactful.
Overall I just wonder how much more successful this would've been if written chronologically instead of this weird gimmick-y way.

I can't decide how I feel about this book. Robin Benway is a strong writer, which is evident in the book's strong narrative. However, the story is told in reverse, making it difficult to connect with the characters. I never really cared about Leo or East, and I think that is only because of the book's untraditional format. It is a well-written novel, and it is the type of book awards committees notice, but I don't think the average teen reader will pick it up.

It's been a year since Leo's sister Nina died in a tragic car accident. The narrative moves backwards in time though and explores Leo's grief coupled with that of Nina's boyfriend East. Leo has no memory of what happened that night and she struggles to deal with losing her sister and surviving the accident.

A Year to the Day is real, raw, and packed full of emotion. I noticed that a lot of reviewers didn't like the reverse narrative format of the story, but I found it to be unique, and an interested way to put together a puzzle. Leo is a character full of pain and depth. She's believable, and likeable. The other characters don't have as much depth as she does, but maybe that's intentional. East is given more dimension, but still, this is Leo's story

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC. I definitely would recommend this to young adults struggling to come to terms with the loss of a loved one. They might see a bit of themselves in Leo.

Can we please talk about how underrated Robin Benway is? I have never read anything by her that didn't fully deliver, and yet she always seems to fly under the radar! Let's change that, yeah?

Anyway. I loved this book. Can I give you a hint that may help you love it more? When you finish, go back and read the first chapter again. It will give you a whole new perspective on what you've just read. When I first finished, I was hoping for a little more.... but then I went back and reread the beginning and I kind of felt totally fine with it! Just my suggestion, for what it's worth.

Anyway, as always with the author's stories, this one is emotionally driven. Given the synopsis, that was to be expected, and I do love when a book leaves me feeling a lot. This one certainly did. But beyond just the inevitable sadness about the loss of Nina, there was a lot of hope in the story, too. It was about more than just the grief that Leo was obviously feeling from the loss of her sister. Things like:

►Family dynamics, especially in the wake of a tragedy. Leo was going to have to move forward within her family unit in a different way, there is no question there. Because while she is grieving this huge loss, so are her parents. One of the things I loved most about this story was how the family was portrayed. The parents are divorced, but the stepmom Stephanie is wonderful. She's compassionate, and tries so hard to be understanding of the devastation of everyone around her- even while dealing with her own grief. Both parents are also handled really well. They aren't perfect, no, and they're both dealing with a lot, but it's so clear to see how much they love their children, and how much they are trying to be there for Leo.

►Leo's other friendships. Leo has always felt a bit alone, which is why it is great that she finds a friend in schoolmate Madison. East, Nina's boyfriend, also becomes an even more significant part of Leo's life after the accident. They bond because they miss Nina in a way that none of their peers can understand, and over time, they bond over more than just Nina. It's wonderful to see Leo building relationships.

►Therapy positive. In the same vein as Leo's parents supporting her, they also encourage her to talk to someone. Leo has to come to terms with her grief, which is no small task, but it is handled really well in the book.

There are a few loose ends that I might have wanted answered a bit more- and I will fully admit that I was hoping for an epilogue of sorts. But like I said, when I went back and reread the beginning, I felt more satisfied.

Bottom Line: Emotional and complex, this was another hit for Robin Benway.