Logan watches Bram's vlogs, Autumn sends online messages to Tavia, and Shay turns to blogging about music. It's a timely story, as each narrator uses digital technology in a different way to deal with their grief. 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. 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. Each is linked, in some way, by music, and Logan's old band called Unraveling Lovely. And white Logan develops a drinking problem when his ex-boyfriend and first love commits suicide.Īll three narrators have individual struggles, but these start to come together and overlap as the story progresses. Black identical twins Shay and Sasha have been torn apart by the end to Sasha's long battle with leukemia. Korean-American Autumn has lost her best friend, Tavia, in an accident. The Beauty That Remains follows three diverse teenagers as they cope with their individual grief. I think this second point is where the book struggled a little. 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. Then you must also, usually, create a compelling story arc out of this 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.

It is hard to write a good book about grief.

I feel like the book was spread a little thin over the three different perspectives, but the strong writing and diverse characters show a lot of promise. The Beauty That Remains is a really solid debut from an author I will be looking out for in the future.

The beauty that remains ashley woodfolk