ellaconway's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
sarahcm's review against another edition
3.0
This book was alright. A tad cliche but for a YA novel I think it would be therapeutic and enjoyable.
yvo_about_books's review against another edition
5.0
Finished reading: April 22nd 2015
“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.”
Spoiler
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!
P.S. Find more of my reviews here.
beccas_bookreads's review against another edition
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
biblio_plus_plus's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
jeansisabook's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Extremely slow first half. Picked up in second half, much better. Characters did not stick with me besides Ty and Damian, and I wonder if this should have been about Damian instead. Every relationship felt half-explored, some of which I felt warranted more exploration and some of which should have been cut out of the book.
jadetxx's review against another edition
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
sadkidwarexpert's review against another edition
5.0
The way I wanna WAIL.
I did actually tear up at the end WOW
This book is so close, so real to the depiction of grief and guilt.
I found myself relating to this so much, even tho, Thank God, no one I know has ever died by suicide. But I have a vivid imagination, and I imagined what people would feel if I went that way, people close to me, my friends and family, how those who are far away from me, would notice my disappearance but would never know what happened to me, and knowing me and my trouble , would probably get everlasting heartache questioning what went wrong.
The grief, everybody deals in a different way, I dealt with mine with silence. The loss of my grandpa was my closest experience with death, I saw him waste away, I said my goodbyes, I regretted so many things, I still do. I cried once during the funeral when I saw his body, and after that, I only cried a couple of times in the 2 years that followed. I delt with the pain in silence. Sometimes i feel like I'm over it, it doesn't bother me, but other times I feel so weird about it, that it just slaps me in the face, I can't even put it into words it just strikes me that he's gone. I never was close to him, but I have my handful of things to remember, things that proved to me that I wasn't invisible to him, that he thought of me, even tho I could count the words on my fingers that we've exchanged, none of us are much of a talker.
This is a fantastic book, really, it's just perfect.
I did actually tear up at the end WOW
This book is so close, so real to the depiction of grief and guilt.
I found myself relating to this so much, even tho, Thank God, no one I know has ever died by suicide. But I have a vivid imagination, and I imagined what people would feel if I went that way, people close to me, my friends and family, how those who are far away from me, would notice my disappearance but would never know what happened to me, and knowing me and my trouble , would probably get everlasting heartache questioning what went wrong.
The grief, everybody deals in a different way, I dealt with mine with silence. The loss of my grandpa was my closest experience with death, I saw him waste away, I said my goodbyes, I regretted so many things, I still do. I cried once during the funeral when I saw his body, and after that, I only cried a couple of times in the 2 years that followed. I delt with the pain in silence. Sometimes i feel like I'm over it, it doesn't bother me, but other times I feel so weird about it, that it just slaps me in the face, I can't even put it into words it just strikes me that he's gone. I never was close to him, but I have my handful of things to remember, things that proved to me that I wasn't invisible to him, that he thought of me, even tho I could count the words on my fingers that we've exchanged, none of us are much of a talker.
This is a fantastic book, really, it's just perfect.
lissysadventures's review against another edition
4.0
4.5 stars!
I really liked this book! I will admit that I cried (if you can't tell from the title... it's a sad story). In this book we follow Lex as she tries to figure out how to move on after her brother committed suicide.
This is one of those books where it will look like everything will start to go right then it will all come crumbling down, which I really enjoy.
All in all this was a really nice story but, I still feel a little wary after finishing it. Most of the "conflicts" have been resolved but, others we just get an allusion as to what happened next. I don't know how I feel about it.
I'd recommend this to anyone who wants to understand grief better. I've read multiple books about characters moving on after the loss of someone close to them and it has changed my perspective on death and grief.
I really liked this book! I will admit that I cried (if you can't tell from the title... it's a sad story). In this book we follow Lex as she tries to figure out how to move on after her brother committed suicide.
This is one of those books where it will look like everything will start to go right then it will all come crumbling down, which I really enjoy.
All in all this was a really nice story but, I still feel a little wary after finishing it. Most of the "conflicts" have been resolved but, others we just get an allusion as to what happened next. I don't know how I feel about it.
I'd recommend this to anyone who wants to understand grief better. I've read multiple books about characters moving on after the loss of someone close to them and it has changed my perspective on death and grief.