Book Review: How to Say Goodbye in Robot by Natalie Standiford

June 09, 2010

Beatrice has lived all over the country. She and her mother follow her father as he strives for academic excellence as a university professor. She has learned not to get too attached to the kids at each school. That only makes it harder to leave, so she tells herself not to care. One year and she's off to college anyway...until she meets Jonah. Everyone else may call him Ghost Boy, but her own mother calls her a robot. How bad can he be?

He turns her on to a local radio show, the Night Light Show with Herb Horvath. How did he know she fell asleep to a radio show every night in her last town? They slowly begin to build a friendship that crosses traditional boundaries. They search for Jonah's twin brother who he discovers didn't die all those years ago. They discuss how weird Bea's mom is getting. They work on the yearbook together and they listen to the radio every night.

When things start to fall apart with Jonah's brother and Bea's parents, will they find a way to save each other? Sometimes you have to let the ones you love go. A touching story about two awkward teens who find a common ground. They learn how to love, how to let someone else in, how to grow in the face of tragedy, and they do it with a sincerity that sometimes breaks your heart.

"Is there or isn't there what? How do you define a boyfriend? If a boyfriend is the first person you think about when you wake up in the morning and the last face you see before you fall asleep, then I was in love with Jonah. But if a boyfriend had to involve physical chemistry and kissing and sex and stuff, then, no he wasn't that.

'It's too complicated for yes or no,' I said," (Standiford pg. 103, 2009).

How to Say Goodbye in Robot by Natalie Standiford at MCPL

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