cynthia hand the last time we say goodbye

Then there’s the way the surviving family members/friends are treated – death usually generates awkward reactions as it is, and people tend to ignore the elephant in the room when the cause was suicide. Her experiences felt authentic to me – for example, the guilt that accompanies those who are left behind, questioning if there’s more they could have done, particularly if the person in question reached out to them prior to their death. But this was also due to my own experiences with the issue, and it was actually quite a cathartic experience.ĭon’t expect an action packed read – as the reader, we accompany Lex on her journey as she deals with her grief in the aftermath of her brother’s suicide. I will admit to being easily emotionally manipulated, and wept my way through to the end once I past halfway. Authors also need to avoid vilifying the deceased for what some might consider a selfish decision, without being seen (especially in YA) to be condoning their actions.Īll in all, I think Cynthia Hand generally achieves these delicate balances in the book. There’s a delicate balance – you don’t want to be too dark, at the risk of inspiring similar feelings in your readers, but at the same time, frivolity is to be avoided due to the risk of undermining and trivializing the issue. But it’s also a topic that needs to be handled with nuance and discretion – too often, novels on suicide tend to be clumsy or heavy handed. I think it’s incredibly important that YA authors are dealing with the rather taboo issue of suicide, especially as it’s something that needs to be talked about, especially among the younger generation. There seems to be a rash of young adult books dealing with the issue of suicide lately – offhand, I can think of Gayle Forman’s I Was Here, Jennifer Niven’s All The Bright Places, Jasmine Warga’s My Heart and Other Black Holes, and, of course, Cynthia Hand’s The Last Time We Say Goodbye. But Lex is about to discover that a ghost doesn’t have to be real to keep you from moving on.įrom New York Times bestselling author Cynthia Hand, The Last Time We Say Goodbye is a gorgeous and heart-wrenching story of love, loss, and letting go. But there’s a secret she hasn’t told anyone-a text Tyler sent, that could have changed everything. And it feels like that’s all she’ll ever be.Īs Lex starts to put her life back together, she tries to block out what happened the night Tyler died.

Now she’s just the girl whose brother killed himself.

Friends who didn’t look at her like she might break down at any moment. The last time Lex was happy, it was before.

Cynthia hand the last time we say goodbye