A review by dee_farbz
The Beauty That Remains by Ashley Woodfolk
3.0
I thought this book was on the path to a different story and then realized about half way through it wasn’t about what I thought it would be. I feel like it’s a little unfinished. Sometimes the characters were really clear and other times they felt unrealistic. Often the interactions with the each character felt too perfect and the problems too easily fixed then would actually happen.
I also felt like there was a lot more editing to be done on this book. There were analogies that didn’t make sense, missed words and one misspelling (microphone shortened to Mike rather than Mic) that drove me crazy through the entire novel.
A good chunk of the novel that bothered me was the interactions between Autumn and her sister Willow. I feel like Willow was often used as a device to show that Autumn wasn’t grieving correctly when in actuality she was doing a lot of healthy grieving. For instance, throughout the book, Autumn is writing emails to her friend Tavia who died unexpectedly. Willow tells her to delete her friend’s email account and email her instead. I would’ve been alright with this if Autumn had told her sister no or in her head thought something along the lines of “this is alright to do, this is healthy,” but she doesn’t. In reality, writing letters to someone who has passed is an extremely healthy and helpful way of coping. I felt like healthy coping methods in general we’re not integrated enough into this book since it is about coping and healing with loss.
I think the intention and the heart of this book kept me reading until the end but I most likely won’t ve recommending this to anyone.
I also felt like there was a lot more editing to be done on this book. There were analogies that didn’t make sense, missed words and one misspelling (microphone shortened to Mike rather than Mic) that drove me crazy through the entire novel.
A good chunk of the novel that bothered me was the interactions between Autumn and her sister Willow. I feel like Willow was often used as a device to show that Autumn wasn’t grieving correctly when in actuality she was doing a lot of healthy grieving. For instance, throughout the book, Autumn is writing emails to her friend Tavia who died unexpectedly. Willow tells her to delete her friend’s email account and email her instead. I would’ve been alright with this if Autumn had told her sister no or in her head thought something along the lines of “this is alright to do, this is healthy,” but she doesn’t. In reality, writing letters to someone who has passed is an extremely healthy and helpful way of coping. I felt like healthy coping methods in general we’re not integrated enough into this book since it is about coping and healing with loss.
I think the intention and the heart of this book kept me reading until the end but I most likely won’t ve recommending this to anyone.