This book was not for me. I loved the representation of characters with mental illness written by an own voices author. However, that is where my liking stopped. I struggled to follow the story and stay connected with the characters. I chose to not finish this book because of the disconnect I felt towards the characters. I do hope that this book finds itself in the hands of readers that need it.

Unfortunately I did not finish this book because I found it very dull. I only gave it one star because it was not possible to give zero.

How to choose between 4 and 5 stars? I'll say 4 1/2, but round up. There are so many emotions about this book. It started off rough for me- just getting used to the format and then figuring out which character was which, but once I did, I felt truly invested in the characters. There are so many aspects of this story that are hard, but beautiful at the same time. Being a military spouse, the deployment and FLOAT aspect of the book really hit close to home. The little tics, PTSD and OCD things felt purely authentic and I believed the characters 100%. We can attribute a lot of that to author- who in the forward confesses that she leaned on personal experience for much of this book. I would recommend reading that forward before and after the book. I felt I got to know the author through that as well as the book. Ultimately, this is a book about survival, finding out who we really are, and forgiveness (outward and inward). Truly a beautiful book.

Warning- some strong language, mental health, and suicide is mentioned. Probably not for those who trigger easily.

The writing style was a little different in this book and it took me a little longer to get invested and connect with the characters. There were a couple of dry parts that I wanted to just rush through, but overall there were a lot of good, touching moments throughout the book. I’d recommend Six Goodbyes We Never Said to those that are wanting an emotional read and something that delves into some deeper topics such as anxiety, depression and ptsd.


Thank you to the publisher for reaching out to me for the chance to read an advanced digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for this free ebook in exchange for an honest review!

I am so happy to see more books with mental health rep. I cried so much that I couldn’t finish this one but the parts I read would great.

hank you to @wednesdaybooks and @netgalley for the ARC and #blogtour opportunity.
🎈
“If we don’t find a way to cope with the grief, it’ll strip of us living, ourselves.” 🎈
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Naima and Dew have both lost their parents. Naima’s father lost his life during his sixth tour in the Marines, while Dew lost both his parents in a tragic car accident. This story is one of immense grief, learning to survive and letting go. 🎈
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Naima is left to live with her step-mother (who she doesn’t get along with); thus she moves to be with her grandparents. She is angry at the world and doesn’t find much of a purpose for living. Dew lives next door, living with his new foster parents and sister. While he is also dealing with grief, he is making lemonade with the lemons he has! Their grief is made even more complex as they each deal with their own mental health issues: clinical depression and anxiety. Thus, when Naima moves in next door, Dew is excited to get to know her and hopes they can find common ground in their shared experience and save each other in the process. 🎈
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I loved the two characters; they were polar opposites. Naima is at times downright nasty and unlikeable, while Dew is just the sweetest person in existence. He took Naima’s harsh criticism with a smile every time. The characters and their grief was extremely well developed and it was interesting to see their vastly different coping mechanisms and outlooks. 🎈
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This book touches on so many issues, from grief, mental illness, fostering/caregiving struggles with emotional and poignant writing by Candace Ganger. It’s YA with hard hitting topics that I think can be enjoyed by anyone. 🎈

I need to start by saying this is a new to me author, and I was completely blown away by everything this book had to offer. After reading the synopsis I knew this would be a book I was goin to love as long as I felt the representation of mental health illnesses lived up to my expectations. To say it did would be an understatement. The whole book is written with the utmost respect and I appreciated every aspect of it.

Naima was one of those characters that grew on me, at first I was just not into her and her attitude problems. The outbursts and every time she snapped were very relatable and real to me. I fell in love with Drew immediately, he is one of my all time favorite character’s and I will have a place in my heart for him always. Drew’s panics attacks were represented in a way that made me feel like I was living through one myself. They were so realistic to the ones I suffer from I felt someone was in my head retelling exactly how I felt.

This book was everything I wanted and more. I can’t wait to read other books by Candace. This is definitely going to be one of my all time favorite authors, and is already on my auto-buy list. The feelings of loss, panic, and anxiety were just all too real. I can’t explain the feelings of respect I have for this author.

Six Goodbyes We Never Said is a very enjoyable and heartwarming read.
It tells a unique story, in a unique way. What’s offered aren’t characters that are easy to like, or even to digest, but they’re diverse, vividly placed on the page and so intriguing that I had to finish the book.
I loved the writing in the book. It didn’t have the typical flow, but it helped capture the disorders the characters have. The pacing was really good too, I tend to rush to get things done, but this book slowed me and my thoughts down a whole lot, and the pace of the plot had a lot to do with that. Each character had a voice of their own, which seems to be difficult to pull off, but the dual POV was executed masterfully in this one.
It was just a great read. I recommend it.

It took me a minute to sort out these wonderfully intricate characters after I did I fell in love with all of them. The combination of anger and hurt from Naima broke my heart throughout most of the book. Then Dew would heal it a bit. He was going through his own grieve but he dipped his in sunshine.

Six Goodbyes We Never Said is a smart, heartbreaking story of love, loss, friendship, and finding their way through loss.

I really felt drawn to this book due to the subject of mental illness. I struggle with anxiety and have since I was a young teen.

There were so many unique and touching moments in this book that I definitely recommend giving this book a try. I loved how the author had a personal note in the beginning of the book which automatically grabbed me right away. I feel so touched when the authors give us a glimpse of their lives and what gravitated Ganger to write this novel.

Ganger does a nice portrayal of her characters Naima and Dew struggling with their own challenges of loss, anxiety, and grief. I think this was definitely one of the author's strengths showing her readers what it's like to suffer from mental illness. Naima and Drew built a strong foundation with one another built on strengthening one another up due to the struggles both of them have endured.

What I struggled with a tad bit was the writing style. I felt it was a tad choppy and my interest flowed in and out. I think overall, this was a wonderful story on the struggles of anxiety and grief.

3.5 stars!

Thank you so much to Netgalley and Wednesday books for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

Publication date: 9/24/19
Published to GR: 9/15/19

I will echo what a lot of other reviews say. The author did an extensive amount of research for this book to accurately portray their POV. I appreciate that in a writer. I too did not feel a deep connection with the characters themselves like I do in most books. I believe there is a large enough audience in search of and in need of a book exactly like this that will appreciate it for the intended purpose. I gave it 3 stars because I believe this is an important book for several people out there. Thank you #NetGalley for this arc!

The blurb and cover sucked me.

Sadly the story fell flat for me. I don’t have a big connection to anxiety or PTSD, so it was a bit harder for me to understand.

The main characters were ok and like-able at first, but going on in the book, the selfishness/rudeness and the creepiness were not my thing.

I received this ebook copy from the publisher and NetGalley for an honest review.

Would you rather listen to something that will break you, or always wonder what words may have been?

This book was an ARC given to my from the publisher and author through NetGalley in return for an honest review. Thank you for this opportunity, and know that all thoughts are my own and do not reflect the author or publisher in any way.

Unspoilery Description/ Review:

Well, I don’t know if I’ve ever cried more in a book. Six Goodbyes We Never Said written by Candace Ganger is an amazingly crafted book that tells the story of two teenagers whose worlds collide as they deal with the loss of their parents. This book discusses grief, mental illness, and suicide, and it also contains mild cussing. These heavy topics are handled well in the book, but I do not recommend this book for children too young to understand these subjects.

Dew Brickman’s parents died in a car crash, and he was placed in foster care where Stella and Thomas adopted him. Six Goodbyes We Never Said shows Dew learning to accept his new family and say goodbye to his biological parents without having to forget the good times they shared. Dew suffers from social anxiety and poor time management, and I feel like many readers can relate to his awkwardness around people and desire for friendships.

Naima’s mother passed away when she was young, and her father just recently died while serving his country. She has always been different due to her obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), depression, generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This young girl often feels trapped inside her own mind and routines, and she has gotten used to cutting people out of her life. Watching Naima struggle through her grief and mental illnesses is hard, but I believe the author wrote this book from a stance of understanding and openness that helps normalize the idea of these disorders. People with mental illnesses can feel represented by this writing because the author used her own experiences and crafted the story with such care. In addition, other people can still relate to pieces of Naima’s grief and struggles she has with her emotions and thoughts. I think this book is an important story for young adults to read and understand other people’s point of view. Everyone has baggage and a history. This book made me realize that everyone has things they are dealing with, and we just have to step into other’s shoes and accept people for who they are.

I loved this book because of how real and raw it felt. This book made me cry because of all the hard issues that it deals with; however, I finished this book feeling hopeful. The author did an amazing job showing that dealing with grief is a continuous process, and I felt like this book ended in a beautiful conclusion. I highly recommend this book to others.

Thanks for reading!

Some Amazing Quotes:

“‘Grief will kill you if you let is. Some things are out of our control.'”

“I’m fat. Not pudgy or plump. Not thick or curvy. I was born with gorgeous, insulated layers. I’ll likely always have them and I’m good with that…and anyway, when I look in the mirror, I see my worth. I’m capable, strong, fierce. I’m a goddamn beautiful powerhouse not to be fucked with. you don’t have to be thin to love yourself (fact), and I love my body, for the record.”

“‘You should be polite enough to ensure proper pronouns before declaring the title of ‘god.’ You don’t know how the dog identifies.’ He snickers. ‘I’m not joking. Don’t be ignorant.'”

“Would you rather be alone for the rest of your life? Or only have annoying people surrounding you, forever?”

“If you wish on an airplane, as Dew’s father suggested, your heart and soul are guaranteed to be momentarily in flight, landing safely in a designated wish zone…”

“You’re a cracking fire [that] dark can’t break.”

“Would you rather live for a thousand years without the ability to feel joy, or die young but be filled with it?”

“Of all the things that scare me, it’s fear I fear the most. The way it pins me against a wall so I can’t move or breathe. The way it tells me I can’t do the things I know I can. I will look fear in the eye, and this time, I won’t blink.”

3.5, maybe 3.75 stars

This one is hard to rate. While I like parts of Naima and Dew's stories, I didn't really connect with them, which I wasn't expecting at all because when I read the synopsis it was right up my alley! Girl losing her father at a young age with GAD, girl same sign me up! But sadly I didn't connect. I hated the way she treated her family and Dew in the beginning for that manner.

Overall it is a well written (even though it seemed to take me quite awhile to get through, I'm blaming the font that wouldn't change on the e-arc on Kindle) and deals with hard hitting topics. I would have liked to see and hear more about if there was more of a connection between her dad and Dew or if it was simply because Dew overheard a message and if the letters from her dad had been included that would have been a plus.

I also liked the body positive message that Naima had about herself. As long as you're proud and love yourself it makes no difference what others think or say. Another thing that I liked were the chapter layouts, we start with Naima's POV - a voicemail from her dad - then Dew's POV, almost every chapter.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for allowing me to receive an advanced copy for an honest review.

Pain and Healing are the two themes in this title. I will tell you off the start to make sure to have tissues because you will cry during this title. It was one of those books that I could see how much research the author did for this story and the characters and I couldn't put it down. It was very original and true to the voice of the story. Its one that will rip your heart out as you fall in love with the characters.

4 1/2 stars

A part of me approached Six Goodbyes We Never Said by Candace Ganger with a lot of trepidation. My own mental state was frequently teetering on depression. Could I read this sad book and be fine? While Six Goodbyes We Never Said deals with a lot of heavy subjects, there is a constant wave of hope undulating through the text that touches the reader, along with many other emotions.

While the story is focused on Naima and Dew, many other characters are going through stages of grief in Six Goodbyes We Never Said. This is a fact I didn’t lose sight of as I read.

I wanted to like Naima, but I didn’t until the ending. In all good novels, characters change and Naima did. But I felt like she was an impetus for her father’s tragedy. Other children call her selfish, always drawing attention to herself. She is so caught up in how bad she feels, punishing her father for leaving to do his job, being beyond mean to her step-mother, who is definitely not perfect, but doesn’t deserve the treatment she receives. Perhaps the biggest, most reprehensible action on her part is how she treats the father she supposedly loves beyond everything else in this world. He’s in a war zone and she ignores him.

Now, Dew, on the other hand, perhaps he’s supposed to be the perfect foil. He’s good (albeit human and at least once has a less than good reaction to someone), considerate, and if you told me he was on the spectrum, I would believe it because he is open, says his thoughts, wants to help; he’s without facade. What you see is what you get–more even. I loved Dew. I loved that he had an amazing ability to help, especially his new sister Faith. In fact, all of the relationships in the Brickman home are amazing.

Besides Dew, my other favorite character is Ray, Naima’s father. At the beginning we have this wonderful scene in which Dew congratulates a serviceman on his duty. It turns out to be Ray. Ray receives a call. After that call, emotion wash over him and then he calls someone to apologize. The feelings witnessed in that scene are incredible. All throughout the novel, Ray is shown as a person who tries to do right by everyone. He is the soul of this novel for me despite the fact that he’s passed. He always “sees” his daughter for who she is and loves her anyway.

I could continue to rhapsodize about the characters but I’ll stop now, well, except to mention that the relationship between Naima’s grandparents is wonderful. JJ and Kam embody love.

This was very much a character-driven novel rather than a plot driven novel. We spend a summer with Naima and Dew, who slowly, ever so slowly due to Naima’s unwillingness, befriend each other. We watch them work through their anxieties, their fears, their relationships with other people. I found the ending to be completely satisfying.

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Six Goodbyes We Never Said is a gorgeously written introspective book. At the same time it's a story of mental health, grief, love, and friendship. Told from dual perspectives, and with voice mail transcripts, Six Goodbyes We Never Said is an emotional book about letting go and moving forward. Six Goodbyes We Never Said is a book that will move you on multiple levels. It's a book about grief and processing our guilt. At the same time, it's also a book about mental health, the foster system, siblings, and friendship. Six Goodbyes We Never Said has truly gorgeous writing for such a moving story. Whether it be the way these characters keep interacting or their genuine interactions, there's something that will grip you about Six Goodbyes We Never Said.

I found this to be a fascinating read. I am fortunate to not have to deal with issues of anxiety & depression (at least not to the extreme) so to read a story that deals with it was interesting. Naima & Dew have both lost their parents in different ways & are trying to navigate life after this. The way they cross paths & how they deal with the losses are worth reading this book.

This book is the the story of two grieving teenagers. Naima lost her father in action so she moves in with her grandparents; Dew lost both his parents in a car accident and moves in with his adoptive family. Both kids are now neighbors and when they meet they develop a special friendship.

There is a lot of representation in this book; you have biracial latinx representation, bi, pan, OCD, and PTSD. In this sense I really liked the story, it was emotional and moving and I think a lot of people will identify with the way Dew and Naima find hope and comfort in each other.

However, no matter how powerful I found the story to be, I felt no personal connection with the characters themselves. I wasn’t addicted to the story and do not wonder what will be of the characters (which I often do with books). I personally don’t feel like the book was engaging enough, but I don’t want to discourage other people from reading it because with all the important subjects highlighted by the author I am sure this book will speak to a lot of people. I think it will be a good read for those struggling with grief and mental illness and when I recommend it I will point this out.

Six Goodbyes We Never Said is a YA novel that deals with important and difficult themes such as loss, depression, suicide and mental health. Both main characters, Naima and Dew, are dealing with the loss of their parents. Naima lost her dad when he was overseas working as a marine, while her mom already passed away when she was born. Dew lost both his parents in a car accident, and now lives with an adoptive family. The end up living next door to each other and helping each other through their grief.

Even though I thought it was great that this book deals with so many topics that are not dealt with very much in YA novels, the story fell flat for me. I didn’t care for either Naima or Dew. Naima was just plain selfish and Dew was too quirky and sweet for my liking. I just couldn’t bring myself to care for them during their journey of acceptance.

Additionally, the beginning of the book was quite confusing. Naima’s chapters are always clearly indicated, whereas Dew’s are not. They just start randomly after some kind of news report. I was halfway into Dew’s chapter when I realised it wasn’t actually about Naima. Very confusing, especially in the beginning when you don’t know the characters and their stories yet.

I’m giving some extra credits for effort on the part of including difficult topics, and there were a few bits and pieces that I did enjoy, so I ended up giving this book three stars.