SIX GOODBYES WE NEVER SAID
by Candace Ganger
Publication Date: September 24, 2019
Published by St. Martin's | Wednesday Books
Pages: 320
Source: Publisher | Blog Tour
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Synopsis
Two teens meet after tragedy and learn about love, loss, and letting go
Naima Rodriguez doesn’t want your patronizing sympathy as she grieves her father, her hero—a fallen Marine. She’ll hate you forever if you ask her to open up and remember him “as he was,” though that’s all her loving family wants her to do in order to manage her complex OCD and GAD. She’d rather everyone back the-eff off while she separates her Lucky Charms marshmallows into six, always six, Ziploc bags, while she avoids friends and people and living the life her father so desperately wanted for her.
Dew respectfully requests a little more time to process the sudden loss of his parents. It's causing an avalanche of secret anxieties, so he counts on his trusty voice recorder to convey the things he can’t otherwise say aloud. He could really use a friend to navigate a life swimming with pain and loss and all the lovely moments in between. And then he meets Naima and everything’s changed—just not in the way he, or she, expects.
Candace Ganger's Six Goodbyes We Never Said is no love story. If you ask Naima, it’s not even a like story. But it is a story about love and fear and how sometimes you need a little help to be brave enough to say goodbye.
Naima Rodriguez doesn’t want your patronizing sympathy as she grieves her father, her hero—a fallen Marine. She’ll hate you forever if you ask her to open up and remember him “as he was,” though that’s all her loving family wants her to do in order to manage her complex OCD and GAD. She’d rather everyone back the-eff off while she separates her Lucky Charms marshmallows into six, always six, Ziploc bags, while she avoids friends and people and living the life her father so desperately wanted for her.
Dew respectfully requests a little more time to process the sudden loss of his parents. It's causing an avalanche of secret anxieties, so he counts on his trusty voice recorder to convey the things he can’t otherwise say aloud. He could really use a friend to navigate a life swimming with pain and loss and all the lovely moments in between. And then he meets Naima and everything’s changed—just not in the way he, or she, expects.
Candace Ganger's Six Goodbyes We Never Said is no love story. If you ask Naima, it’s not even a like story. But it is a story about love and fear and how sometimes you need a little help to be brave enough to say goodbye.
My Thoughts
I received SIX GOODBYES WE NEVER SAID as part of a blog tour that took place last month. I missed the tour, obviously as I'm just now sharing my thoughts. It took me longer to read than I anticipated. I've been considering what I wanted to share about it here. It's one of those books that I'm afraid that it won't come across just how much I loved it and why I think others should read it. This is me giving it a shot.
I loved the humor in the dialogue and the interactions of the characters. Naima and Dew with both a delight to read about. I especially enjoyed Dew and his adoptive family and his relationship with his sister, Faith. There is a lot of open communication and attempts at understanding one another and validating feelings. And then there is Faith and her Nature Boy Rick Flair "woo-ing" - that had me in stitches.
I appreciate this story for its sensitivity with characters who have experienced great losses and the recognition that everyone grieves in their on time, in their own way. The death of their parents isn't something you can get over. Instead, it becomes a part of them and shapes how they experience the rest of the world.
Memorable Quote:
"If we acknowledge our right to feel like hell, for as long as we need to, maybe others will give us a little more breathing room, you know?" - said to Naima by her grandma JJ.
This book really touched my heart. Like another book I read earlier this summer - THE OTHER SIDE by Kim Holden, it really spoke to the idea that we need to take care with other people's feelings.
It is my hope that readers find compassion for these characters, as well as for the people in their own lives who are going through some tough times and experiences. And please, please take the time to read the Author's Note at the beginning of the book. As it sometimes happens, the note becomes a favorite part of the book just as it did with this one. In case it needs to be said (or written), I loved THE SIX GOODBYES WE NEVER SAID and I am so glad that I read it!
About the Author:
Candace Ganger is the author of Six Goodbyes We Never Said and The Inevitable Collision of Birdie & Bash as well as a contributing writer for HelloGiggles and obsessive marathoner. Aside from having past lives as a singer, nanotechnology website editor, and world’s worst vacuum sales rep, she’s also ghostwritten hundreds of projects for companies, best-selling fiction and award-winning nonfiction authors alike. She lives in Ohio with her family.
Twitter: @candylandgang + @WednesdayBooks
Disclaimer: I received this e-ARC from the publisher for review as part of a review tour. I was not compensated in any way other than the e-ARC provided. Quotes contained within the review are from the e-ARC and may differ from the final published version.Thoughts and opinions are my own.
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