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thevagabondangel's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
notlikethebeer's review against another edition
This was... wow. Wow. Absolutely incredible. Honestly, truly breathtaking. A masterpiece. Every single one of those superlatives that has ever been used to describe a book, this one was. And more. Superlatives and praise that haven't even been invented yet will actually be created to talk about this novel.
Okay, yeah, I'm overexaggerating maybe, but not by much. The Beauty That Remains is one of those books you take forever to read, because you just don't want it to end- the kind of book that leaves you not wanting to start another book just yet, because you can't get your head around reading anything that doesn't feature the characters you've fallen in love with.
The Beauty That Remains follows three main characters: Shay, Autumn, and Logan. Each of these characters has some connection to a now-disbanded band, Unraveling Lovely; and each of them is grieving the death of someone close to them. In a lot of ways, the characters are doubly grieving, because they're still coming to terms with the demise of Unraveling Lovely, and the whole in their lives this has left. As well as this, each of three three is dealing with the rest of their lives: school, family, friends, the other little bits that make up the whole. That's something that really stands out about this book, that it shows, without being cliched or overly obvious, the way that life goes on after colossal loss, and the ways that that affects those grieving.
I'm not always a fan of books told from multiple points of view, because I tend to get over-attached to one character and their plot, and am less interested in the others. I was worried that this would happen with The Beauty That Remains; it did to an extent (Logan 5eva), but nowhere near as much as it usually does. Each speaker had their own unique arc, so it felt like as soon as there was a lull in one story, another story swooped in to take center stage (as opposed to all the drama happening at the same time). Another massive strength was that each character's story was so different, and not all of them necessarily fit conventional storytelling. In this way, each speaker provided a compelling aspect to the overall narrative.
To begin with, it's a bit difficult to work out what the connections between the characters are. However, this definitely gets more clear over time, and the ending especially draws them all together. I really liked this approach, I felt that it allowed a wide breadth of stories to be told, and the vague interlinking worked really well to create a rounded world. There was a whole cast of characters, as opposed to just a few, and it became more fun and interesting to see where the links were.
I think if there was one word to sum up this book, it would be 'breadth'- but then that feels like a disservice, because 'depth' would be pretty apt too. What I mean by that is that The Beauty That Remains covers a really wide range of topics, but never just at a surface level. It was so complex, and nuanced, and beautifully explored. Each of the losses were different, and explored differently. I really felt for each character, and the sense of empathy it evoked for situations I'd never really considered was incredible. Shay's storyline particularly stood out to me for this: I'd never really thought about being 'twinless', and how extremely tough and lonely that must be in itself, as well as the grief and loss from losing someone close to you. I was so pleased for Shay when she was introduced to the support group!
This book is really genre-defying, in the most genuine sense of the word, again because of the diversity in the character's storylines: Logan's story felt like a mystery, but neither of the others fit even remotely into this genre. It kinda has something for everyone.
I particularly loved the use of chapter openers. I think this allowed a really good look at what was lost in each character's life, and, for Sasha and Bram especially, gave a really good sense of the characters who were absent from the story. That made the overall emotional impact even stronger, because despite never having gotten to know the characters who had died, I still felt their absence and the grief their deaths had brought.
The copy I have has a quote from Angie Thomas on the front, something along the lines of this book breaking you, then putting you back together. Truer words have never been spoken. This is a TOUGH read. It will have you crying whilst your dinner cooks (or at least... it did me!). It's gritty, it's unpleasant. The characters aren't always likeable. It doesn't shy away from complex topics or difficult feelings. It's intense. But it is so, SO good.
Sometimes it trips me out, how many books there are in this world, and how I will never even read the tiniest fraction of them. And then I read books like this, and I feel so so lucky, that out of all of those books, I got to read this one.
Okay, yeah, I'm overexaggerating maybe, but not by much. The Beauty That Remains is one of those books you take forever to read, because you just don't want it to end- the kind of book that leaves you not wanting to start another book just yet, because you can't get your head around reading anything that doesn't feature the characters you've fallen in love with.
The Beauty That Remains follows three main characters: Shay, Autumn, and Logan. Each of these characters has some connection to a now-disbanded band, Unraveling Lovely; and each of them is grieving the death of someone close to them. In a lot of ways, the characters are doubly grieving, because they're still coming to terms with the demise of Unraveling Lovely, and the whole in their lives this has left. As well as this, each of three three is dealing with the rest of their lives: school, family, friends, the other little bits that make up the whole. That's something that really stands out about this book, that it shows, without being cliched or overly obvious, the way that life goes on after colossal loss, and the ways that that affects those grieving.
I'm not always a fan of books told from multiple points of view, because I tend to get over-attached to one character and their plot, and am less interested in the others. I was worried that this would happen with The Beauty That Remains; it did to an extent (Logan 5eva), but nowhere near as much as it usually does. Each speaker had their own unique arc, so it felt like as soon as there was a lull in one story, another story swooped in to take center stage (as opposed to all the drama happening at the same time). Another massive strength was that each character's story was so different, and not all of them necessarily fit conventional storytelling. In this way, each speaker provided a compelling aspect to the overall narrative.
To begin with, it's a bit difficult to work out what the connections between the characters are. However, this definitely gets more clear over time, and the ending especially draws them all together. I really liked this approach, I felt that it allowed a wide breadth of stories to be told, and the vague interlinking worked really well to create a rounded world. There was a whole cast of characters, as opposed to just a few, and it became more fun and interesting to see where the links were.
I think if there was one word to sum up this book, it would be 'breadth'- but then that feels like a disservice, because 'depth' would be pretty apt too. What I mean by that is that The Beauty That Remains covers a really wide range of topics, but never just at a surface level. It was so complex, and nuanced, and beautifully explored. Each of the losses were different, and explored differently. I really felt for each character, and the sense of empathy it evoked for situations I'd never really considered was incredible. Shay's storyline particularly stood out to me for this: I'd never really thought about being 'twinless', and how extremely tough and lonely that must be in itself, as well as the grief and loss from losing someone close to you. I was so pleased for Shay when she was introduced to the support group!
This book is really genre-defying, in the most genuine sense of the word, again because of the diversity in the character's storylines: Logan's story felt like a mystery, but neither of the others fit even remotely into this genre. It kinda has something for everyone.
I particularly loved the use of chapter openers. I think this allowed a really good look at what was lost in each character's life, and, for Sasha and Bram especially, gave a really good sense of the characters who were absent from the story. That made the overall emotional impact even stronger, because despite never having gotten to know the characters who had died, I still felt their absence and the grief their deaths had brought.
The copy I have has a quote from Angie Thomas on the front, something along the lines of this book breaking you, then putting you back together. Truer words have never been spoken. This is a TOUGH read. It will have you crying whilst your dinner cooks (or at least... it did me!). It's gritty, it's unpleasant. The characters aren't always likeable. It doesn't shy away from complex topics or difficult feelings. It's intense. But it is so, SO good.
Sometimes it trips me out, how many books there are in this world, and how I will never even read the tiniest fraction of them. And then I read books like this, and I feel so so lucky, that out of all of those books, I got to read this one.
aerideth's review against another edition
4.0
Explores how everyone experiences loss and grief differently and how each character takes their first steps toward acceptance and healing from the loss of a loved one.
andrewrmart's review against another edition
4.0
Update: A few days after recording the notes below, I’ve moved from 3 stars to 4.
I approached this cautiously (as I do with all YA lit that promises sadness) and wound up pleasantly surprised by teenage characters who definitely feel like real humans (rather than caricatures) and a tasteful exploration of grief from diverse perspectives. To that end, I am actually on the verge of 4 stars as I write this! I think this is a book that I could reasonably expect young adult students (particularly young women) to pick up on their own accord because it does a good job capturing both strong emotions/relationships in youth and strong feelings that those emotions/relationships are misunderstood by outsiders -- at one point early on, one of the narrators muses on the fact that proximity to a person is not equal to intimacy. Slowly but surely, the narrators discover all of the beauty that remains after the deaths of their loved ones, although of course they encounter troublesome roadblocks along the way. Below are some excerpted thoughts that I share with another Goodreads user:
It is hard to write a good book about grief. First, you must convince the reader of the importance of the relationship between the protagonist(s) and the deceased; make them care about a fictional dead person as much as the characters supposedly do. Then you must also, usually, create a compelling story arc out of this grief. What will happen next? Where do the characters go from here? What are we reading for? Books about grief risk becoming "concept books", in that the concept is "this character is sad" but a story doesn't grow out of it.
I think this second point is where the book struggled a little. The Beauty That Remains follows three diverse teenagers as they cope with their individual grief. Korean-American Autumn has lost her best friend, Tavia, in an accident. Black identical twins Shay and Sasha have been torn apart by the end to Sasha's long battle with leukemia. And white Logan develops a drinking problem when his ex-boyfriend and first love commits suicide.
All three narrators have individual struggles, but these start to come together and overlap as the story progresses. Each is linked, in some way, by music, and Logan's old band called Unraveling Lovely.
The author puts a lot of emotion into her characters, especially in the beginning when painting in their backstory and relationship to those who have died. Woodfolk explores what it means to lose a twin - that one person who is so closely tied to you and has been by your side all your life - and what it's like to feel like you could have prevented the death of an ex if only... if only.
It's a timely story, as each narrator uses digital technology in a different way to deal with their grief. Logan watches Bram's vlogs, Autumn sends online messages to Tavia, and Shay turns to blogging about music. About a third of the way in, however, I felt like their emotions, the "concept" of their grief had been explored exhaustively, and that the story grew a little tiresome and repetitive.
I approached this cautiously (as I do with all YA lit that promises sadness) and wound up pleasantly surprised by teenage characters who definitely feel like real humans (rather than caricatures) and a tasteful exploration of grief from diverse perspectives. To that end, I am actually on the verge of 4 stars as I write this! I think this is a book that I could reasonably expect young adult students (particularly young women) to pick up on their own accord because it does a good job capturing both strong emotions/relationships in youth and strong feelings that those emotions/relationships are misunderstood by outsiders -- at one point early on, one of the narrators muses on the fact that proximity to a person is not equal to intimacy. Slowly but surely, the narrators discover all of the beauty that remains after the deaths of their loved ones, although of course they encounter troublesome roadblocks along the way. Below are some excerpted thoughts that I share with another Goodreads user:
It is hard to write a good book about grief. First, you must convince the reader of the importance of the relationship between the protagonist(s) and the deceased; make them care about a fictional dead person as much as the characters supposedly do. Then you must also, usually, create a compelling story arc out of this grief. What will happen next? Where do the characters go from here? What are we reading for? Books about grief risk becoming "concept books", in that the concept is "this character is sad" but a story doesn't grow out of it.
I think this second point is where the book struggled a little. The Beauty That Remains follows three diverse teenagers as they cope with their individual grief. Korean-American Autumn has lost her best friend, Tavia, in an accident. Black identical twins Shay and Sasha have been torn apart by the end to Sasha's long battle with leukemia. And white Logan develops a drinking problem when his ex-boyfriend and first love commits suicide.
All three narrators have individual struggles, but these start to come together and overlap as the story progresses. Each is linked, in some way, by music, and Logan's old band called Unraveling Lovely.
The author puts a lot of emotion into her characters, especially in the beginning when painting in their backstory and relationship to those who have died. Woodfolk explores what it means to lose a twin - that one person who is so closely tied to you and has been by your side all your life - and what it's like to feel like you could have prevented the death of an ex if only... if only.
It's a timely story, as each narrator uses digital technology in a different way to deal with their grief. Logan watches Bram's vlogs, Autumn sends online messages to Tavia, and Shay turns to blogging about music. About a third of the way in, however, I felt like their emotions, the "concept" of their grief had been explored exhaustively, and that the story grew a little tiresome and repetitive.
ricci's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
readwithmeemz's review against another edition
4.0
4.5 stars.
I'm an Indigo Employee, and I received an advanced reading copy of this book, in exchange for my honest feedback.
Not the best book to read on your commute - unless you want to ugly cry in front of strangers. ‘The Beauty that Remains’ is a heartbreaking, beautiful, devastatingly well written book about love, and loss - grief and music. Tender, and often painful to read - I absolutely adored it! An incredible book, and an incredible debut. Absolutely can’t wait to read more from this author!
I'm an Indigo Employee, and I received an advanced reading copy of this book, in exchange for my honest feedback.
Not the best book to read on your commute - unless you want to ugly cry in front of strangers. ‘The Beauty that Remains’ is a heartbreaking, beautiful, devastatingly well written book about love, and loss - grief and music. Tender, and often painful to read - I absolutely adored it! An incredible book, and an incredible debut. Absolutely can’t wait to read more from this author!
steel_city_peach's review against another edition
4.0
Sad But Relatable
This book sparked so many emotions for me. On this day 26 years ago, I got a call telling me that my high school sweetheart had died. It was one day after his 18th birthday. With those emotions bubbling up inside of me, this book made me feel seen. I hope that any young person that has to say goodbye to a peer way too soon can find a book like this. Knowing you’re not grieving alone is a vital part of the healing process. Ashley Woodfolk did an amazing job addressing such a sensitive subject.
This book sparked so many emotions for me. On this day 26 years ago, I got a call telling me that my high school sweetheart had died. It was one day after his 18th birthday. With those emotions bubbling up inside of me, this book made me feel seen. I hope that any young person that has to say goodbye to a peer way too soon can find a book like this. Knowing you’re not grieving alone is a vital part of the healing process. Ashley Woodfolk did an amazing job addressing such a sensitive subject.
ashleysparkle's review against another edition
5.0
This book was great. The way the storylines all intertwine but from different perspectives. I love that everything evolves around music. As someone who needs music to survive, it really felt relatable. This book was raw, real, & perfectly portrayed the mixed up messiness of coping with grief.
aspring's review against another edition
i was going to try and finish this today but i am Bored. and feel entirely disconnected from all of the characters. AND i have so much else i’d rather be reading so dnf’ing for now <3