Three interwoven storylines: three beautifully drawn characters, each dealing with love and loss. The Beauty That Remains is set in the Queens, New York, music scene, one accessible to teens drawn to pop-punk and indie-rock.

Autumn is guilt-ridden over the death of her best friend Tavia in a car accident because she opted to hang out with Autumn’s brother Dante instead of going with her friend that fatal evening. Logan uses alcohol to numb the pain of his former boyfriend’s overdose. Shay is trying and failing to find a new normal after her twin Sasha dies of leukemia. Running away from situations that bring up overwhelming emotions has become her coping mechanism of choice. Logan and Dante’s band Unraveling Lovely, managed by Shay and her sister, has dissolved in the wake of a humiliating experience at a recent Battle of the Bands. Shay tries to keep the blog she and Sasha created, Badass Music Fanatics (BaMF) going, but writing reviews will never be the same as their work together with Unraveling Lovely.

The author’s passion for music comes through in her stories of practice sessions, band break-ups, and most importantly, the magic of the artist losing themselves in the moment of performance. Because the characters are African-American (Shay), Korean-American (Autumn), and hispanic (Dante), music fans of color who appreciate genres beyond the ones more often portrayed in media will appreciate finding a book about the rock scene with more racially diverse characters.

Another strength is the presence of the main characters’ family members, parents and siblings who are also working through their grief. Sometimes novels about teens reduce parents to off-stage roles, but in The Beauty That Remains, they are part of the narrative. The poignant descriptions of Shay’s mother who is left with a child whose face will forever echo that of the girl she’s lost is heart-rending. Autumn spends lots of time at Tavia’s house, not just because of Dante but because of her relationship with her friend’s parents. In contrast, Logan has avoided Bram’s mother, since his ex’s death. His own emotions are so out of control, he cannot conceive of having to deal with those of a grieving mother as well. Over the course of the book, with support from a psychiatrist and with urging from Yara, the girl Bram left him for, he reconnects with Bram’s mother.

Yes, it’s a lot of heavy subject matter and not the lightest read, with three characters suffering from grief, depression, and anxiety. But Woodfolk shows her characters’ best selves even in the depths of their struggles. In addition, she makes it clear that reaching for support is part of recovery. Logan sees a psychiatrist who manages to help him, after some initial resistance. Shay and her mom, along with Dante, venture into grief support groups.

As they each find a new way forward, the possibility of getting the band back together is tantalizing and fraught. Can Unraveling Lovely be knit back together once more? Against the rhythm of hope and despair in this outstanding debut novel, readers will pull for just one magical night when all is forgiven and all are healed.

The Beauty That Remains is a really solid debut from an author I will be looking out for in the future. 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.

It is hard to write a good book about 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. Then you must also, usually, create a compelling story arc out of this grief. 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.

I think this second point is where the book struggled a little. The Beauty That Remains follows three diverse teenagers as they cope with their individual grief. Korean-American Autumn has lost her best friend, Tavia, in an accident. Black identical twins Shay and Sasha have been torn apart by the end to Sasha's long battle with leukemia. And white Logan develops a drinking problem when his ex-boyfriend and first love commits suicide.

All three narrators have individual struggles, but these start to come together and overlap as the story progresses. Each is linked, in some way, by music, and Logan's old band called Unraveling Lovely.

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. 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... if only.

It's a timely story, as each narrator uses digital technology in a different way to deal with their grief. Logan watches Bram's vlogs, Autumn sends online messages to Tavia, and Shay turns to blogging about music. About a third of the way in, however, I felt like their emotions, the "concept" of their grief had been explored exhaustively, and that the story grew a little tiresome and repetitive.

Once we had established the hows and whys of the characters' grief, the book stalls, trying to extend these emotions into a family drama and a romance. I struggled with Autumn's story arc the most. It was far less compelling to me than Shay's and Logan's stories, the latter of which reminded me of Adam Silvera's amazing History Is All You Left Me. Autumn's love story with Dante, Tavia's brother, really bored me and was my least favourite part of the book.

A tough subject to tackle and not an instant favourite but, as mentioned above, I am very intrigued to see where this author goes next.

Well, that was sad. Woodfolk is a great new voice on the YA scene and her portrayal of grieving teens tugs at your mind until you want to cry as well. It's not perfect, but most of the flaws can be chalked up to it being a first novel, and I fully expect that as Woodfolk continues writing she will evolve and produce some wholly excellent work.

Following the John Green school of YA writing, this novel deals with tragedy right out of the gate and the grief doesn’t end. Three young people Autumn, Shay and Logan (and a big shout out to the diversity in the characters of this book) each experience the untimely loss of someone close to them. The book is a study in grief. Ultimately (but not for a very long time in the book) the three stories come together as their love of music unites them and helps them to heal. A tearjerker from the first page, this is a great example of an emotional young adult novel. However, the pacing was a bit slow and the coming together of the stories not quite satisfying for me.

3.5 stars.

This was a really solid read! The writing and plot really captured me on the first page, so much so that I finished this book in two sittings total. The writing is incredible, and I loved the slow-moving plot and bittersweet nostalgia. I enjoyed reading about the three main characters' struggles after the deaths of their loved ones, and I also appreciate the diversity that was so flawlessly included within these characters. Autumn is adopted and Korean, Logan is gay, and there are also so many other secondary characters that were from different diverse backgrounds as well. I liked the different experiences that Autumn, Logan, and Shay went through, in terms of grief as well as romance.

My only reservation I have is that the three voices sounded so so so similar that I had to go back and check who was talking because I couldn't differentiate between each of the characters' minds. Especially because characters start appearing across all three POVs so there was a lot of overlap. However, I do want to point out that I liked how the three characters seem separated and their experiences seem distinct, but as the novel progresses, they come together to cope with the deaths of their loved ones.

Thank you to Netgalley and Delacorte for providing this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book had good points and bad points hence my 3 star rating.

Let’s start with the good: I think for any person, young or not, who has experienced losing a loved one can and will benefit from reading this book. It does paint a heartbreaking, beautiful, accurate picture of grief, how it effects people, and how one can learn to cope with a loss.

I felt the characters were all very relatable and real, and I could picture someone I know in my own life who reminded me of each one of these people. All three stories were moving, touching, and had something different to offer when it comes to coping with grief.

Now the parts I didn’t care for: I thought the plot was painfully slow. All three character’s stories intertwine at some point but not until 75 percent of the story has been told and the part where they finally do come together, I feel, could have been longer to have more a meaningful impact. Only some of the characters talk to each other about their grief and loss, and I was really hoping that all three would have a heart-to-heart about the losses they experienced…unfortuately that scene never happened.

The ending was very abrupt. I did not expect them to be completely over their losses by any means and all three by the end were in a better place with healing, but it ended very suddenly and awkwardly and left me, as the reader, feeling unresolved. I felt more of the story could have been told. I actually thought I wasn’t sent a complete copy and kept searching for one final, wrap up chapter. It desperately needed one to feel like a complete circle had been made. Like I said, I didn’t expect the characters to be completely healed by the end, but I did want more of a resolution to each of their stories. Maybe it was the author’s intention to leave their stories wide open, which I respect the author’s creative choices, however it just left me feeling unsatisfied.
As stated above anyone who has experienced the lose of a loved one will find this story very relatable, heart warming, and gut wretchingly honest in places. I do recommend it especially if you love a good contemporary novel. Unfortunately for me, it just moved a little slow for my liking.

This book comes out March 6th so keep an eye out for It!

Author: Ashley Woodfolk

Genre: Young Adult

Pages: 352

Release Date: March 6th 2018

5 out of 5 stars

*I received this as an arc from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

I would first like to make the statement that I have several arc reviews coming up. Y’all know how honest I am and I am not afraid to give a book one star and that won’t change because I receive arcs. (Just wanted to make it a statement 🙂 )

Now where do I start with this book? It’s heartbreaking, raw, honest and pulls at your heart strings. I’ll leave the Goodreads synopsis down below.

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?

I kinda wish this book had a better synopsis because I feel like this one doesn’t do this incredible book justice. Seriously this book had me crying from the first page to the last, and that’s no exaggeration. This book talks about grief, anxiety, friendship, family, and love. A lot of people will bash Young Adult because they say it’s too immature and it’s all the same, but this book is so special, this book can help people who have grieving hearts, and this book can give someone comfort when people can’t give it to you. This book had extraordinarily written characters, and an amazing plot that weaved all these characters stories together. Each chapter was told by one of the 3 characters, Sasha, Logan, or Autumn and each of their chapters started off with something significant from the person they lost. For example Logan’s chapters started off with titles of his ex boyfriends vlog channel, Sasha’s chapters started off with a review for a band from her dead sister, and Autumn’s chapters started with her sending texts and emails to her dead best friend. This book is so much more than a Young Adult book, it talks about heavy topics that a lot of people are too scared to write about, or they are written about, just not well. Books like these are so important because they can spread awareness, help educate people, or just make someone’s day a little better.

This book doesn’t come out until march so I don’t want to talk about this book too much because I genuinely think you all should go out and buy this book and I’m not exaggerating. Even though this book deals with a lot of heavy topics there are moments of humor that will make you smile and I like that the book can still find the time to be lighthearted even though it is so heavy. I just think this book was written exceptionality well, and it made my heart feel so many different emotions like happiness and sadness. If you love books by Adam Silvera you’ll love this!! This book kind of shattered my heart but gave me smiles and tears for days. I just don’t have enough words to explain how much I love this book. You guys will HAVE to read this!!!

This book was slow to get into. The link between the characters was not apparent for a good portion of the book. While I like the topic of losing a friend and coping with grief in different ways, this book didn't hold my interest in a steady manner.

This is a beautifully written book about the way that we deal with grief and the way that those around us can help us through that pain. Told from the perspective of three different teenage characters who have all lost loved ones. This story takes the reader on a journey with each character as they deal with their grief. There were moments in the story that had me in tears. I like the way that each story was told, as well as how music tied them all together. The three losses were all different as well, which added to the strength of the story. The author is able to touch on many different types of loss and the different relationships that we have in our lives. Very well written and I look forward to more from this author. Thank you netgalley for an opportunity to review this book and exchange my honest opinion.

In Ashley Woodfolk's YA contemporary THE BEAUTY THAT REMAINS, three teens deal with the loss of a loved one who was taken from life too soon. Autumn's lost her best friend to a car accident and finds herself in a complicated relationship with her best friend's brother. Sasha's lost her twin sister to cancer and begins to suffer from panic attacks that keep her from being able to fully live. Logan's lost his ex-boyfriend to an apparent suicide and is obsessed with finding out what happened in the months since their break-up. Each of them is desperately trying to redefine their voice in the world, and it's a local band that ties all their stories together.

THE BEAUTY THAT REMAINS is a tear-jerker of a story that is also filled with so much hope. It realistically deals with the question of how to move forward after losing a loved one, in particular when those who are gone and those who are left behind are young. Having lost my own sister very suddenly when we were both teenagers, this story hit close to home.

You know whenever a new diverse book starts being talked about on my twitter feed I have to jump on Netgalley and search for it. In this case it wasn't different. When I saw that Becky Albertalli blurbed it I was super excited. I love a good sad book that messes with your heart and it could have easily been a favorite if I didn't thought the story was a bit confusing due to the multiple points of view, that's not my favorite. All characters have so much to give that they could each have their own book and that makes THIS book a challenge to keep up with them. It is an amazing book with deep characters and interesting plot.

Through alternating point-of-views, The Beauty That Remains follows three teens in the aftermath of death. All discover more layers to the people they thought they knew intimately. And all carry a burden of guilt: Autumn was hanging out with Tavia’s brother – rather than Tavia – the night of Tavia’s car crash; an angry and hurt Logan tells Bram he hopes he dies alone – and then he does; Shay feels her very existence is a reminder to her friends and family of her dead identical twin.

Each is fixated on the social media imprints their deceased friends/exs/siblings have left behind. Logan watches videos left by Bram, an aspiring vlogger with a mild following. Shay relives the band reviews posted by Sasha on their Badass Music Fanatics website, and feels like stepping up to continue their work would be like displacing her sister. Autumn sends Hangouts messages and emails to a person who will never receive them. Each tries to cope with loss in their own way, ranging from physically self-destructive (alcohol abuse) to psychologically damaging (trying to be perfect in order to fill the gap left by the deceased).

I found the story to be a bit disjointed and had difficulty tracking the ancillary characters – Paige, Alexa, Deedee, Faye, even Perry, to some extent . . . these people just blended together for me. There were thoughts and actions that felt very authentic and unique to those surviving a loss, but the overall grieving and healing process at times felt a little rushed and diluted over the three central characters’ arcs. Each character’s situation was complex enough to warrant more fleshing out of story and development. The concept of everyone being fixated on a defunct high school band didn’t work for me, and the amount of times Unraveling Lovely just “happened” to be on in someone’s car, bedroom, etc., felt really forced and distracting. Logan and Autumn are both stuck somewhat in creative blocks – Logan unable to write new songs, and Autumn unable to finish a sketch of Dante – but when they do find their creative muses again, the tension has long been lost and the payoff seems haphazard.

I found the cadence of the writing to be strong, but – and this may sound weird – the word choice was lacking. A few examples:

In a scene where Autumn is sketching a picture of Dante, she notes the differences between Tavia’s and Dante’s faces. First, I sharpen the shape of the oval to echo his square jawline. But sharpening would make the oval pointier; a square jaw suggests a blunted oval.

I try to find my footing in this room, in this relationship. Is Nico – the guy who kissed my ex, the guy who introduced him to drugs – a drummer, a dealer, a liar, or my friend? Or is he somehow all of these things at once? Shouldn’t this type of sentence be structured around things that are at odds with each other? It is not as if someone being a drummer disqualifies them from being anything else on that list. (Is he somehow a drummer, yet also a liar?!)

From Logan’s POV: I shut up and walk over to the whiskey, which is still on Nico’s dresser. (Preceding this sentence is a paragraph-long speech from Nico, so, no, Logan, you didn’t “shut up” – but you could “stay silent and walk over.”)

If you are the kind of person who thinks, What? Who even points that stuff out? then you will probably have a more enjoyable time with this book than I did. Just encountering sentence issues every few pages was distracting for me.

One of my main peeves in YA books is when the author drops pop culture references that are more in their wheelhouse than a teen’s. The epilogue – which presupposes the reader has seen Love Actually, an R-rated, limited release movie from 2003 – seemed a little odd, as most of the target audience for this book will have been born after its production, and I don’t know that Love Actually gathered much of a cult following.

Overall (writing nuances and Love Actually aside), this would be a good fit for a teen who is struggling with grief – although I would recommend Goodbye Days and Words in Deep Blue above it.

There are so many wonderful things about this book! It was beautifully written. The characters were rich and heartbreaking and I absolutely loved the diversity in the book.
My main problem with this book was that it seemed like there was just too much going on. I could see this book easily being split into 3 books, where then the reader would be able to go more in depth with each set of characters. I almost felt like as soon as I was starting to follow one plot line, we jumped to another one right away. I would have loved to be able to focus on just one set of characters and really get to know them better, as opposed to reading about each set in very short bursts.
But this might work for other people, so I would definitely recommend this book.

The Beauty That Remains is a heartfelt story of 3 separate people each dealing with the loss of a loved one. As I started the story, I wondered how they would bring the characters together, and the author did, seamlessly.

I haven’t had a book that truly blew me away this much since the beginning of this year, and I haven’t been promoting a 2018 release as hard as this one. It’s impossible to describe the well of deep love that runs through me for this book. We follow three grief stricken teens, which just tore a raw wound into my heart to see them in such deep pain trying to cope with their big loss of the death of a close one.

We have Shay, who runs an indie music blog and was an ex-band manager, and recently lost her twin sister to leukemia. There’s Autumn, an adopted Korean bookworm, who just lost her life-long best friend to a tragic car accident. Then there’s Logan, a gay guy who played bass and was a lead singer, whose ex-boyfriend had an overdose. The one thing that brings these lost souls together is the power of music.

The plot itself is slow moving, there’s not really much that’s happening. It’s more a character based journey through life, which was the perfect thing that I needed at that moment (also the reason that I;m in a huge book hangover.) If you appreciate a raw and authentically real writing style, run don’t walk to the bookstore the day it’s released.

I’ve been saying this for the past couple of years, but we are in sore need of more realistic and diverse teen characters like the ones we have here. Woodfolk has a way with words, is a natural storyteller, because her writing seems to flow effortlessly and she absolutely nailed it with the three different POVs. So much can go wrong with multiple narrator, it’s a risky move to make and rarely well done in my experience, but I can praise Woodfolk for perfection with this, to the moon and back always. (Which is the highest praise from a moonchild like me.)

What I could really appreciate is that there wasn’t a tragic moment/accident that happened on page; this book didn’t focus on the thing itself. It shows the after-math of this life-changing tragedy among those people who are the closest.

My favorite scenes balanced the delicate line of grief-stricken pain and loving nostalgic memories. Some the scenes had nothing to do with that, it was just a bunch of teens going to a concert of their favorite band, or a new romantic relationship blooming, or the support of the closest best friends. I kept on imagining these characters as real people in my city, because I cared and truly deeply connected to every one of them. And that my friends, is the highest praise that I can give for a book. 10,000/10 stars

**Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me a copy in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own**

Odd to read this just after The Window: both books include twin girls who have been "untwinned" (yes, it's a thing) and run track. Instead of one person grieving, here we have four, all bound together by their loss of someone somehow involved with the band Unraveling Lovely. They're a diverse group in just about any and all ways you can think of "diverse" and the author does a great job of making that feel natural, not an example of diversity because it's "in" or "cool". So yay for that!

But... the multiple POVs, the relatively stereotypical plots and subplots and character arcs? If only they'd felt as natural as the characters themselves.

ARC provided by publisher.

Thank you to Random House Books and Delacorte Press, and NetGalley for the advance reader copy The Beauty That Remains by Ashley Woodfolk in exchange for an honest review. Woodfolk’s debut novel is a sad, sad book dealing with a trio of teens who try to make sense of the loss of three other teens (sister, friend and ex-boyfriend. The characters are well drawn, and authentic dealing with devastating grief, loss, love, and devastation. Each of the three teens narrates through chapters as they tell their stories, uncertainties, and speak to the power of friends, family, and relationships. As the book moves forward, the reader will be gripped by Shay’s, Autumn’s, and Logan’s loss, their sympathetic stories kept me turning the pages, as they use their love of music, friendship, and family to find “the beauty that remains” after their lives are irrevocably changed. This book stole my heart, teens will love this positive, affirming tear jerker. Highly recommended!

This book dealt with interconnected stories of varying grief in teens' lives. It felt realistic and is sure to connect with young readers.
A readalike to Turtles All the Way Down.

I received an ARC copy from netgalley for my honest review,  so thank you netgalley and publishers for offering me this book! ♡
This is an amazingly beautiful heartfelt story of loss and grief, very well written,  and touching.
This was my first book by this author,  I absolutely enjoyed every second of it.  It was fast paced and just alltogether an easy read. ♡ I give this book a 4 star rating!

Autumn, Shay, and Logan are connected through music—and grief. Autumn, who lost her best friend just weeks ago, is struggling to find herself without Tavia here to guide her. Shay’s twin sister Sasha died after years of fighting Leukemia almost half a year ago, but the debilitating panic attacks she’s trying to hide from her family and friends are threatening to undo her. Logan is drinking and lashing out, unable to cope or heal after the suicide of his ex-boyfriend Bram. He hasn’t been able to write a song since. They all used to be connected through Unraveling Lovely, the epic band put together by Logan, managed by Shay, and always cheered on by Autumn. With so many griefs and secrets separating them, will music be enough to bring them back to themselves and maybe even back together?

The Beauty That Remains is such a beautiful and heartbreaking exploration of grief and healing. Woodfolk’s writing is lovely and earnest. Autumn, Shay, and Logan’s experiences and griefs all felt entirely distinct, and it’s particularly interesting to see characters in three different places with their grief and responses to it. Autumn, whose loss is most recent, struggles to release her emotions at all. Shay’s grief and sorrow has manifested in a panic disorder and anxiety that she’s trying to hide from her loved ones so they don’t worry. Logan, who doesn’t know how to process his grief over someone he had barely talked to in the months leading up to his death, falls into bad coping mechanisms that push everyone away. All of their issues and feelings were explored with such care and empathy, and I especially appreciated that there was never a magic cure for anyone. Autumn’s feelings for her best friend's brother Dante don’t magically make her sorrow and guilt go away, and although the support of Shay’s friends is very important it doesn’t cure her panic attacks.

It’s a sad book of course—the whole premise is about these three young people dealing with unexpected death and grief—but it never feels over the top or unnecessary. The Beauty That Remains feels like a very honest portrait of what it’s like to lose someone you love and the difficult journey of trying to keep going after that kind of loss. Ultimately, though, the book is very much about hope: the hope of things getting better, the hope of healing, the hope of everything good that’s left even after you lose someone you love. The title really says it all; this book is about discovering “the beauty that remains” even after devastating loss, and hope in time—and with help—you can begin to find it again.

This is just a lovely example of what a great YA book can be, and I would definitely recommend it to fans of John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars, Adam Silvera’s History is All You Left Me, and Nina Lacour’s We Are Okay.