The Survival List

July 15, 2019
A 17-year-old Jewish girl seeks answers after her sister dies by suicide. Sloane laments missing critical signs after her beloved older sister, Talley, takes her own life, leaving only a list bearing a California phone number, the initials "TSL," and cryptic references to names and places. Determined to decipher Talley's code, Sloane embarks on a road trip across California with Adam, the phone number's handsome, evasive owner. As clues fall into place via an implausible series of coincidences, Sloane learns that Talley was keeping a painful secret. Unfortunately, Talley is portrayed as one-dimensionally "special": brilliant, kind, and universally admired. However, Sheinmel's (Let's Mooove!, 2019, etc.) painfully realistic depiction of depression sensitively emphasizes that "it's a medical condition, a potentially fatal one." Though the author intricately portrays Sloane's grief and guilt, her poignant take on the butterfly effect--including thought-provoking references to the Holocaust and its legacy--explores not only suicide and its aftermath, but survivors' capacity to heal. The bond between Sloane and her fiercely supportive best friend, Juno, lightens the mood, their chats about boys and babysitting gently reassuring readers that life goes on. With few physical descriptions, the book seems to follow a white default. Juno is deaf, and two of Sloane's friends are gay. Contrivances notwithstanding, this is a sympathetic, thoughtful exploration of depression, suicide, grief, and healing. (author's note) (Fiction. 14-18)

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September 1, 2019

Gr 8 Up-When Sloane's cherished older sister Talley unexpectedly kills herself, she doesn't leave a note. A lover of puzzles, Talley leaves a list of items (among them the Sunshine Crew, Crescent Street, a phone number) without any obvious significance to Sloane. Reeling with guilt and confusion, Sloane calls the phone number. It belongs to 17-year-old Adam in California who claims to have never met Talley, although he does know the meaning of several items on the list. Desperate for any scrap of connection to her sister, Sloane flies to California, where her quest to untangle the meaning of the list begins to illuminate hidden parts of her sister's life. It is the connections she makes along the way, though-including to a long-lost aunt and to Adam, whose platonic friendship buoys her-that ultimately offer Sloane a path through her loss. While the use of a list as a plot device after suicide suggests obvious comparisons to 13 Reasons Why, this is a vastly more hopeful book, focusing on reasons Talley wanted to live rather than unraveling causes behind her death. Sloane's grief is painfully raw and her journey toward healing is believably halting. However, the slow pace results in an overwhelming number of revelations in the book's last quarter, many of which are not explored in sufficient depth. An author's note includes suicide hotline contacts. VERDICT While the protagonist is well developed, a rushed final act denies readers a deeper exploration of these critical issues. For large collections.-Elizabeth Giles, Lubuto Library Partners, Zambia

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