The Beauty That Remains by Ashley Woodfolk – a Review

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Description:
Music brought Autumn, Shay, and Logan together. Death wants to tear them apart.

Autumn always knew exactly who she was—a talented artist and a loyal friend. Shay was defined by two things: her bond with her twin sister, Sasha, and her love of music. And Logan always turned to writing love songs when his love life was a little less than perfect.

But when tragedy strikes each of them, somehow music is no longer enough. Now Logan can’t stop watching vlogs of his dead ex-boyfriend. Shay is a music blogger struggling to keep it together. And Autumn sends messages that she knows can never be answered.

Each of them wonders: How different would my life be if this hadn’t happened? And now that it has . . . what’s next?

Review:

The Beauty That Remains by Ashley Woodfolk is a standalone YA novel about a group of young people brought together by music, and separated sadly by death. The story follows the POV of three people who have lost someone very close to them. We follow them as they grieve over the deaths that have left them emotionally damaged, with each dealing with it their own way.

Shay has lost her twin sister, Sasha, to cancer, and though she knew this was coming, she has a hard time dealing with her loss.  As she says: she is now ‘twinless”

Autumn lost her best friend, Tavia, in a car crash. She releases her grief by writing emails to her dead friend daily telling her about life without her.

Logan has lost his ex-boyfriend to an overdose.  Though a few months have passed since his boyfriend, Bram, dumped him, Logan has trouble dealing with his death.  He will need the help of a psychologist to eventually help him.

All three of them know each other through music and band, though they are not together to help each other.  Grief is always sad and emotional for everyone and their family or friends.   The story gives us a look at their grief, and how they are emotionally affected by the loss, which also has them cutting themselves from their other friends; as we get to see their pain, anger and at times their self blame.

We also get to meet each of their families and/or friends who are also affected by the deaths, and in time they will each come together in their love of music, and the band that was the link between them.  This is a difficult review to write, as it is a story that needs to be read.

Though at times I did find it a bit slow, the story was very well written, and grief can be depressing.  Even with this subject, Woodfolk did a very good job keeping this emotional story moving and not allowing it to stagger.   I thought this was a good story, though not my type of book.  If you like YA novels with action, suspense and exciting, then this is not for you. 

The Beauty That Remains is a well written story, with an excellent cast of characters that must find a way to get past their grief’s and move forward in life.  Essentially they need to see the beauty that remains in life.

Reviewed by Barb

Copy provided by Publisher