Title: The Last Time We Say Goodbye
Author: Cynthia Hand
Genre: YA, Contemporary, Fiction
First published: February 10th 2015
Finished reading: April 22nd 2015
Pages: 400
“Time passes. That’s the rule. No matter what happens, no matter how much it might feel like everything in your life has been frozen around one particular moment, time marches on.”
Wow, just wow. I do not cry easily when I’m reading a novel, but The Last Time We Say Goodbye left me with tears in my eyes. Cynthia Hand did an excellent job describing the different main characters and explaining how a suicide affects those who are close to the victim. This story is both sad and brilliant at the same time… The attempts of the main character Lex to cope with the loss of her brother simply heartbreaking and without doubt exceptionally well written. I loved the prose and the little journal entries at the beginning of some chapters; they give a great insight in what Lex is feeling at the moment. The Last Time We Say Goodbye is what you call a ‘heavy’ read that will end up affecting you more than you would have thought… It’s not an easy read, but a story that will definitely stay with you for quite some time.
Lex used to be happy. She used to be just another nerdy teenager with divorced parents, friends, a boyfriend she loved and dreams about college… But that was before her brother Ty decided to do the unthinkable. Feeling ‘below empty’, he decided to kill himself. Suddenly, Lex is the girl whose brother killed himself. And she doesn’t know how to cope with this loss. Lex tries to put her life back together, blocking out what happened and pushing away her friends and dad. He left them for another woman a few years back, and she still blames him for it… Trying to find a way to accept her brother’s dead, she goes to therapy. That’s when she starts a journal to write down her feelings… Although Lex doesn’t feel it will help; she prefers to forget. Soon forgetting seems impossible as she starts seeing the image of her brother everywhere. Lex knows he’s gone, but she has a feeling she has to help Ty with some unfinished business before she can really move on…
I don’t think I will forget The Last Time We Say Goodbye any time soon. It’s a beautifully written and heartbreaking story that will leave its mark once you’ve read it. It’s a story full of love, loss and acceptance; something you can relate to if you have ever experienced the death of a loved one. Cynthia Hand did an excellent job with this novel, and I would definitely recommend it to those who don’t mind a contemporary read dealing with tough issues. Make sure you have some tissues nearby if you decide to read this one!
Great review! I’ve seen this book around a lot, and have thought about checking it out. Maybe not yet though; I recently finished reading All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven which deals with suicide. Don’t know I can deal with another book on that subject at the moment!
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Thanks! I know exactly what you mean… I have All The Bright Places on my April TBR, but I will leave it on my shelf for now because I don’t think I can handle another suicide themed book right now. I need some feel-good books first, like Fangirl I’m currently reading. 😉
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I’ve been keeping my eyes open for books that made a reader teary-eyed in case the three books I’ve chosen for ‘A book that made you cry’ for the Popsugar challenge don’t work out, so I’ll definitely be trying this one as another option. I also really enjoyed Cynthia Hand’s Unearthly series, so I’m looking forward to reading another of her books. 🙂 Great review!
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If you need a book that will most likely make you cry, The Last Time We Say Goodbye is a perfect choice. I almost never cry when I’m reading, but this one was definitely an exception. I will definitely check out more of her work in the future!
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I rarely cry when reading as well! Any book that manages to is quite the book. ❤ Looking forward to reading this!
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Same here! I hope you will enjoy reading it as much as I did, and don’t forget the tissues… 😉
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