The Beauty That Remains by Ashley Woodfolk Pages: 352
Published by Delacorte Press on March 6th 2018
Genres: Young Adult, contemporary, Diverse Book
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?
The Beauty That Remains is the debut young adult novel by Ashley Woodfolk. The Beauty That Remains is powerful book featuring wonderfully diverse characters. It is a realistic fiction piece about how people deal with loss differently, and also about how this new era of social media can shape the grieving process. I really enjoyed this novel. I found it to be so multi faceted, and so interestingly put together. I think this is a great book to recommend to reads of realistic contemporary fiction. Ashley Woodfolk is a wonderful new voice in young adult literature.
The Beauty That Remains is told in three different point of views, following our three main characters- Autumn, Shay, and Logan. Each of our main characters has lost someone close to them. Autumn lost her best friend, Shay lost her twin sister and Logan lost his ex-boyfriend. There were a few things that I really loved about this novel. First, I loved the diversity in the cast of characters, and I loved how each of their journeys were distinct but merged together in a really beautiful way. Having the book told in each of their points of views, really allowed the reader to get to know everyone really well and we got to see inside their heads and see how they were coping with their loss.
Second, I really loved the format that The Beauty That Remains is told in. Social media has invaded almost every single aspect of our life, and our social media does not just disappear after we pass away. I thought it was really smart to incorporate various social medias and use them to showcase how grieve is changing in this technological and very public world. The Beauty That Remains is told in a multitude of formats, including traditional conversations but also in various emails, gchat, and comments from our main characters to their loved ones. This was a really interesting look at how social media has affected the grieving process. I think the format of The Beauty That Remains was my favorite part of the story. I also loved the thread of music that wove the characters together. Watching each of their journeys overlap was bittersweet but it was also beautiful and realistically raw.
Overall, The Beauty That Remains is a really thought provoking bittersweet novel. I loved the way music and social media through the mixed formats were incorporated into the story. This was a really beautiful and power debut novel from Ashley Woodfolk. I really enjoyed it and I can’t wait to see what she thinks up next. You do not want to miss this novel when it releases on March 6th.
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About Ashley Woodfolk
Ashley Woodfolk graduated from Rutgers University with a BA in English and her life-long love of books led her straight to the publishing industry. She’s a member of the CBC Diversity Committee and markets books for children and teens. In her abundance of “spare” time, she writes contemporary YA. Indie movies, beer, books, and burgers are a few of her favorite things. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and pit bull puppy, Winnie. THE BEAUTY THAT REMAINS is her debut novel.
It sounds really sad.
sherry @ fundinmental