Review: The Last Thing You Said

The Last Thing You Said by Sara Biren
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was lucky enough to receive an advanced reader copy of this novel through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

The last thing you said is a hauntingly, beautiful story about grief, and the way it affects everyone around it. Lucy and Trixie were a package deal. Inseparable from their first meeting at five years old, where one goes the other goes. High School and the teenage years doesn't change that, and in many ways it's made them grow closer. Lucy has also found herself falling for Trixie's older brother Ben, and on a sunny summer day at the lake, it seems he's finally starting to feel the same way about her. Their world is about to shatter in ways they never could have seen coming, when Trixie disappears under the water, and never resurfaces. All of a sudden Lucy's left trying to navigate life without her other half, and Ben's left with horrible amounts of guilt that he wasn't able to save his sister. A year later, and Ben and Lucy's friendship is no more. Pain, grief, and underlying guilt and sorrow have wretched them apart, and neither sees a way that they can ever move on from it. Sara Biren's debut novel is a heartbreaking, realistic look into the way that the loss of a loved one affects everyone left living, but it's also so much more than that. This beautiful story is also a story about new friendships (and I loved Hannah's character), second chances, redemption, and healing. This book reminded me so much of Sarah Dessen's writing, and that's a huge compliment coming from me. I honestly think this novel will touch anyone who takes the time to read it, and I'll be expecting amazing things from Sara Biren's next novel. I gobbled this one up in one sitting, and it's honestly one of my favorite reads of 2017 so far!

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