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faysieh 's review for:
The Last Goodbye
by Fiona Lucas
I knew this book would make me cry and so I was somewhat nervous of how upset it would make me feel all the while knowing I wanted to read it and feel whatever sadness it threw at me.
This book is a slow burner with an adrenaline pumping near-to-the-end development. Not adrenaline inducing in terms of twists or reveals as this is not a mystery, crime or thriller book, but a beautiful and poignant love story that made me feel as if my heart had stopped whilst I was reading. Its quiet power and devastatingly accurate sense of loss and grief held me spellbound as I met and journeyed with Anna, bereft and heartbroken that her husband Spencer died and left her alone.
The 1990 pop song by Sinead O'Connor, Nothing Compares 2 U, came into my head as I was reading The Last Goodbye as Anna keeps a tally of years, months and days since Spencer has been gone in the same way the song talks about it being 7 hours and 15 days 'since you took your love away'. The song and the book share the same melancholy and the achingly torturous daily reminder of how life is so different without the person you love by your side.
Anna is an amazing character that I felt privileged to meet as she moved from hiding under the duvet to being dragged to salsa classes by friend Gabi, and standing up to her domineering and possessive mother-in-law Gayle.
Love and loss and how bereavement affects us in different ways is explored through Gayle's loss as a mother, Anna's loss as a wife and Gabi's loss of a relationship that just isn't going anywhere. It is raw and real, deeply sad but also life affirming as Anna begins to find courage and comes to terms with moving on.
She is helped enormously by the unseen Brody, caught in his own personal torment, and who just happens to have acquired a phone number that used to belong to Spencer. Anna, at her lowest ebb has rung the number before just to hear her dead husband's voice, but this time on New Year's Eve, it is a stranger's voice who answers, Brody.
I want to wax lyrical about every chapter of this book but can't spoil the story for would-be readers. There was just so much of Brody's fear that I could relate to and understand and this is why, in places, the tears kept falling.
An extremely thoughtful and compassionate novel, this book made me cry but also sows plenty of seeds of hope. If I could award it 10 stars I would because not only is this a love story it is also about the freedom we give ourselves if we can only face up to our fears and learn to let go.
Anna and Brody will stay in my heart as fictional role models for being brave, honest and prepared to face each day, no matter how hard that is.
And just in case you are worried about the book only being able to make you cry, it does make you smile too.
Thank you to Fiona Lucas, the publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this inspiring and heartfelt story, in exchange for this, my honest review.
Read it!
This book is a slow burner with an adrenaline pumping near-to-the-end development. Not adrenaline inducing in terms of twists or reveals as this is not a mystery, crime or thriller book, but a beautiful and poignant love story that made me feel as if my heart had stopped whilst I was reading. Its quiet power and devastatingly accurate sense of loss and grief held me spellbound as I met and journeyed with Anna, bereft and heartbroken that her husband Spencer died and left her alone.
The 1990 pop song by Sinead O'Connor, Nothing Compares 2 U, came into my head as I was reading The Last Goodbye as Anna keeps a tally of years, months and days since Spencer has been gone in the same way the song talks about it being 7 hours and 15 days 'since you took your love away'. The song and the book share the same melancholy and the achingly torturous daily reminder of how life is so different without the person you love by your side.
Anna is an amazing character that I felt privileged to meet as she moved from hiding under the duvet to being dragged to salsa classes by friend Gabi, and standing up to her domineering and possessive mother-in-law Gayle.
Love and loss and how bereavement affects us in different ways is explored through Gayle's loss as a mother, Anna's loss as a wife and Gabi's loss of a relationship that just isn't going anywhere. It is raw and real, deeply sad but also life affirming as Anna begins to find courage and comes to terms with moving on.
She is helped enormously by the unseen Brody, caught in his own personal torment, and who just happens to have acquired a phone number that used to belong to Spencer. Anna, at her lowest ebb has rung the number before just to hear her dead husband's voice, but this time on New Year's Eve, it is a stranger's voice who answers, Brody.
I want to wax lyrical about every chapter of this book but can't spoil the story for would-be readers. There was just so much of Brody's fear that I could relate to and understand and this is why, in places, the tears kept falling.
An extremely thoughtful and compassionate novel, this book made me cry but also sows plenty of seeds of hope. If I could award it 10 stars I would because not only is this a love story it is also about the freedom we give ourselves if we can only face up to our fears and learn to let go.
Anna and Brody will stay in my heart as fictional role models for being brave, honest and prepared to face each day, no matter how hard that is.
And just in case you are worried about the book only being able to make you cry, it does make you smile too.
Thank you to Fiona Lucas, the publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this inspiring and heartfelt story, in exchange for this, my honest review.
Read it!