The Last Time We Say Goodbye

I read this book on the suggestion of a friend. It’s billed as “young adult” fiction. I’m certainly no longer in that age category, having celebrated 63 years.
The book references how a teen girl deals with the suicide of her younger brother. It’s not even slightly maudlin about it. The author describes the girls feelings so well, you feel them with her, all the while hoping things “get better” with time.
I read every word, quickly, anticipating….the ending was perfect. I cried.
(My husband of one year killed himself years ago. I miss him every day.)

My daughter Shelby Nicolle Marie Perez committed suicide on January 3, 2011 at 14 years old. When I read the cover to your book I thought to myself that I might be hurt or cause myself pain by reading this fictional plot/storyline. I was immediately drawn into your descriptions, words and emotions. I kept reading because I could not put down your book, your words. I know in the end that you stated very clearly that the book is not your life but the words you wrote, the feelings you expressed are those of a survivor of suicide. I ended up crying in the end but not until I read your acknowledgement and I realized that you suffered a loss also. Thank you for sharing your heart and your mind.

I didn’t feel all that connected to any of the characters, and I think a book like this needs to establish that connection in order to work.

Alexis struck me as kind of snobby and self-centered, for the most part. She’s experienced trauma and tragedy and she’s understandably heartbroken, but her characterizations of her friends and family make her seem very childish and spiteful. She wants to wallow in her guilt and misery alone.

The author really wasn’t up to par on suspending my disbelief as far as Lex’s guilt goes, anyway. That was another reason I didn’t connect with Alexis and she occasionally irritated me. I’ve never had a family member commit suicide so I obviously cannot judge for myself, but I didn’t really buy in to Lex’s feelings of guilt at her brother’s suicide. Anger, yes. Guilt, no.

And I think that that disconnect is caused by the fact that Ty (characterized in flashbacks) just didn’t seem all that troubled to me. I don’t know enough from the narrative to believe that he was actually suicidal, and didn’t feel like Lex could have known enough to feel that much guilt.

I say this only because I didn’t feel the connection with the characters that I would’ve needed to empathize with them, based solely on the narrative as presented. I know nothing about what survivors feel after a suicide, and I would never try to speculate on that. But based solely on this book and its story and the way it is told, I didn’t understand the characters and what they were feeling.

But, apart from these complaints, I do have to say that the mysterious portions of this book kept me reading, and I wanted very much to know how it would play out. Even when the book got a little pear-shaped in the middle, I still went on because I had to know. The writing itself was good and the dialogue was believable (always a danger zone in YA, I’ve found), but I’ll probably have forgotten these characters in a week or two.

TL;DR: Well-written and compelling, but not one that will stay with me very long. Needed more (better?) characterization.

When you read a book where suicide plays a crucial role in the plot, you go into the novel with the expectation that you are going to feel some things. Maybe a lot of things. You go in knowing that there’s a good chance that you are going to cry. You go in with the knowledge that you might get mad. You do not go into the novel with the expectation of not feeling anything.

Unfortunately, that is what happened when I read The Last Time We Say Goodbye. From the first line to the last, I can honestly say that my emotions did not change at all throughout the story.

I wish there was a few details about the novel that I could hold up and say I really enjoyed but honestly, there was nothing in this book that felt noticeably good enough for me to point out. The characters, for the most part seemed flat. There were a few minor characters here and there that could have possibly been interesting but they were in the book so little that there’s no way of knowing. The plot was all over the place. It flitted from one thing to another to yet another and none of it really flowed. It felt like reading a montage of scenes in an outline in an early draft of a novel. That’s what reading this felt like. Throw in some suicide statistics and it just completely took me out of any kind of plot flow this novel may have had.

Loved this book it was a really enjoyable and interesting read.

this book followed our young lead after her brother has killed himself
and her subsequent guilt and her trying to understand why he did this.
it really is a great read.

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