Thank you to NetGalley and Inkyard Press and Abigail Johnson for the ARC in exchange for my honest review. I have read most of Abigail Johnson's other books and have thoroughly enjoyed each and every one of them so was so excited to be able to read this one. This one is different than the others . . . and not in a bad way . . . in a very personal way. I did some research when I read an earlier book about this author (as I often do when I read a book by an author that is new to me) and found out that she was a quadriplegic after a car accident. I was intrigued by her and her ability to write these amazing romance and young adult books. So, I was really interested to read this book because this book was about a girl that suffered a car accident at the age of 17 (like the author) and was in a wheelchair as a result - the girl in the book is a paraplegic.

Abigail Johnson writes what she knows about - and this is in no way a "feel sorry for me" book b/c she is paralyzed. This is a book about teenagers who have a wide range of emotions - like all teenagers - but these teenagers also have some really hard family life stuff to deal with as well. Ms. Johnson does a great job in talking about the challenges that come along with being in a wheelchair, but she does not dwell on it. This story is about two young adults who are faced with several serious challenges and how we as adults sometimes think we are doing best for them by hiding our feelings when we really aren't. When does a teen become an adult? When do they get to share in all the good news along with the horribly sad news?

The best thing about this book is that it shows what friendships can truly mean. Friends can come in different ages and in different stages of your life but we all need a good support system.

While I overall enjoyed the themes and characters in this book, I think I am just the wrong demographic, I kept wanting the plot to be a little more in depth and more "raw" however for a YA audience I think it is perfect. The story still brought tears to my eyes, reading about Rebecca and Ethan's struggles make you think and evaluate the problems and issues that many people face daily.

The lack of communication between Rebecca and Ethan was frustrating at times, I wanted to shake them both and let them know it was ok to express how they were feeling, but I think that truly speaks to how badly they were both struggling.

Overall I found this to be a very enjoyable, emotional and though provoking read!

This book is intense and beautiful. I had tears in my eyes multiple times because it's just so real. Though I'm not disabled in the same way, reading a book about someone with an acquired disability written by someone with the lived experience meant a lot because certain thoughts and feelings the character had were still relatable. Both MCs have had a lot to deal with in their 17 years and their journies together and individually are emotional and gripping. I requested this book because there was a character in a wheelchair on the beautifully designed cover, so I didn't have a ton of expectations going in about the story itself and it knocked my socks off.

Thank you NetGalley and Inkyard Press for the ARC! The book releases Dec 5/23. My review lives on my Instagram story highlight called ARCReviews.

Thank you to the publisher for allowing me to read this eARC.

Honestly, this was just okay. Nothing unique or super interesting, the characters were meh, there wasn't chemistry between them. There was just nothing that made me excited to read this or to ever read it again.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Like any other of Abigail Johnson’s books, Every Time You Go Away deals with some pretty heavy topics, most notably, substance abuse and grief.

I enjoyed the book, but the characters irked me at times with their lack of communication and their tendency to hide how they felt. I also didn’t feel the chemistry between Rebecca and Ethan. They both had so much going on and I felt as if they were better off as friends. Their relationship was also way too angsty for me. I just wasn’t as invested in them together as couple and was more interested on their individual stories.

All in all, this was an okay read. I just don’t think I was in the right headspace for it.

***Thanks to NetGalley for providing me a complimentary copy of EVERY TIME YOU GO AWAY by Abigail Johnson in exchange for my honest review.***

4.5 STARS

Rebecca lives next door to Ethan’s grandparents. The two become friends as kids when his mom drops him off to get clean. As quickly as he arrives he disappears, returning at various intervals without their childhoods. Now seventeen, Ethan is back after a four year absence, angry and resentful. Rebecca, partially paralyzed from an accident that killed her father carries even more scars on the inside. The two emotionally damaged teens try to regain their friendship and maybe more in EVERY TIME YOU GO AWAY.

I enjoy Abigail Johnson’s writing style, the characters she creates and her storytelling. Though the characters are now seventeen, EVERY TIME YOU GO AWAY will appeal more toward older middle grade and younger young adult readers as it lacks some of the grittiness and harsher realities of substance abuse older readers would expect.

Thinking of my clients whose parents abused substances, I can’t imagine any would still have hope or try to locate a parent who left rehab for the umpteenth time when there has never been a period of sustained recovery. By the time they’re seventeen, they’re jaded to the unkept promises and while they’re often parentified and blame themselves, they also lack hope that *this time* will be different.

My favorite character was John, Rebecca’s future stepfather. I love how he tried to show Rebecca that her mom demonstrated love in different ways than she did. I could see how her mom’s coldness felt like a lack of love to Rebecca and it made me think of people in my life who were less demonstrative, showing love in deeds rather than words like her mom. This is a great message for young people depicted through the actions of characters, something I wish I had read as a young person.

In the preface Abigail Johnson says she never thought she’d write a paraplegic character and that while Rebecca’s story is not hers and Rebecca is not Johnson, Rebecca couldn’t have been written by an able-bodied person. The experience of someone who’s had to navigate spaces that don’t accommodate wheelchairs, so many places like doors, tables, bathrooms, door handles I’d never considered, could only be told authentically by someone who knows from experience. When I was in college in the early 1980s I worked retail. A customer in a wheelchair complained because the clothing racks were too close together and she couldn’t get through or even shop. It was Christmas time, we jammed as much merchandise as we could into our department. I figured it shouldn’t matter because we rarely had customers in wheelchairs. This was before the Americans with Disabilities Act and not long after Handicapped Parking, as it was then called, be more common. I don’t think I realized until reading EVERY TIME YOU GO AWAY how awful my thoughts about the customer’s very justified concern were. I share this in my review to illustrate the importance of Johnson writing a character like Rebecca are. Representation matters and the manner in which Johnson shows Rebecca’s daily life obstacles are less about her paralysis and more about inadequate accommodations by people who probably thought like I did in the 1980s or not at all because they never had to.

I can’t read the title EVERY TIME YOU GO AWAY without the song ringing in my head. This important book should be in every middle and high school classroom and library.