The Beauty That Remains

December 18, 2017
In a strong debut, set on a realistically diverse Long Island, Woodfolk surveys the devastation of those left behind after the deaths of three teenagers, and their tentative efforts to move forward. Each of the book’s narrators is struggling with grief. When the book opens, Autumn’s best friend, Tavia, has just been killed in a car crash; Shay’s twin sister, Sasha, has succumbed to the leukemia she’s had since she was 11; and Logan’s ex-boyfriend, Bram, has committed suicide. Autumn’s loss is the most recent; Logan’s happened months ago, and he thinks he should be over it. The three are also linked by their connections, some closer than others, to Unraveling Lovely, a local indie band that might have made it big if Logan hadn’t messed things up. Although there are many characters to keep track of, and it’s not always clear who knows whom and how well, Woodfolk eloquently depicts how 16-year-olds live in the digital and physical worlds, how the latter can amplify the former, how relationships shift after someone dies, and how life goes on, if you let it. Ages 14–up. Agent: Beth Phelan, Bent Agency.

December 15, 2017
Isolated by three untimely deaths, a diverse assortment of teen millennials seeks healing in friendship and music.Shy Autumn, a Korean-American adoptee, was stunned when her best friend, Tavia, a lively Latinx extrovert, died in a one-car accident returning from a party. Autumn's guilt over having skipped the party to hang out with Tavia's brother, Dante, threatens to derail their dawning romance. Bram died months after he'd left Logan for Latinx Yara, a girl. In pain, blocked emotionally and creatively, Logan, a white, singer/songwriter, self-medicates with alcohol. Black identical twins Shay and Sasha were close until leukemia took Sasha's life. Shay was a strong student and runner; now panic attacks prevent her from focusing on school or the music fan site the two started, on which they'd promoted a once-promising, now-defunct band called Unraveling Lovely--made up of Logan, Dante, and Sasha's boyfriend, Rohan. Their intersecting stories chart how the void left by death reshapes relationships among survivors: friends, parents, children. Sasha's long illness defined her three-person family; now Shay and her mother must remake their connection. For Logan, Yara proves an unexpected ally. While Shay and Logan have strong, distinctive voices, Autumn's agony--with her shorter emotional journey and narrative arc--is less convincing. (That her adopted status might affect her reaction to loss is suggested but unexplored.) All cherish images and voices of those lost, preserved in digital media, but the sensitively wrought narrative braid argues that only the living can comfort and heal.An ambitious debut from a writer to watch. (Fiction. 14-17)

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February 1, 2018

Gr 9 Up-Bring out the tissues: this deftly written tale of three teenagers coping with love and loss will pull heartstrings. Logan, Shay, and Autumn are loosely connected by the now-defunct band called Unravelling Lovely. As the band has imploded, so have their lives. In alternating perspectives, this novel presents each character coping with the loss of someone vitally important to their own understanding of who they are in the world. Singer-songwriter Logan struggles with his anger and self-destructive impulses after his ex-boyfriend's apparent suicide. Shay copes with her own fear and heartache after her twin sister, a music blogger, dies of cancer. At the same time, quiet, artistic Autumn has to break out of her shell of silence and self-control to find her way without her colorful best friend. The likelihood of three young people in the same world all coping with the tragic deaths of three different young people in their orbit definitely stretches the imagination. That said, the core characters live and breathe; they are contradictory, messy, and truly believable, making readers willing believe the premise. In her debut, Woodfolk has written a lovely and introspective coming-of-age novel that fully captures the way friendship, music, family, and romance dovetail to create a young person's identity. The self- and life-defining nature of grief and loss captured so well by authors such as John Green is explored here with humor, intelligence, and grace. VERDICT An excellent selection for YA collections.-Sara Scribner, Marshall Fundamental School, Pasadena, CAYA Graphic Novels

Copyright 2018 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2017
Grades 9-12 Autumn, Shay, and Logan have something in common: the loss of a loved one. Autumn's best friend, Tavia, has died in a car wreck; Shay's twin sister, Sasha, has died of leukemia; and Logan's erstwhile boyfriend, Bram, has died of an apparent suicide. The three teens are further linked by their love of music, though each reacts to the various deaths in individual, at first unhealthy, ways. Autumn obsesses, Shay has panic attacks, and Logan drinks heavily. Despite these differences, all three have one common coping mechanism: they cry. Boy, do they cry. Gallons of tears are shed in this novel, too many, really, since their quantity tends to mitigate their impact. That quibble aside, Woodfolk has done an exemplary job of character creating and building. Her three co-protagonists are fully realized, empathetic individuals for whom readers will care. They grow and change believably as they begin to find ways to deal with their grief, and the resolutions of their emotional crises are lucid and deeply satisfying, as, ultimately, is this fine first novel.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)