I felt like doing something a little different for this incredibly amazing book so I took some inspiration from the book (unfortunately, the title of this post references a terrible thing that happens… whoops) and decided to make a guide to reading What to Say Next.
1. Go grocery shopping before diving in. Make sure you buy Kleenex and stock up on your comfort foods. You will be needing those things very soon.
2. Prepare for a heartbreaking discussion on grief and death. If that’s not something you can do right now, probably don’t read the book but if you do choose to, there will be tears if you are a human bean (refer to the first point in this guide.)
3. Pace yourself because you’re in for a serious bookish hangover post reading the book.
4. Get your pom poms out because you’re going to be cheering for Kit and David. Not just for them to get together and put us all out of our misery, but because they have a great friendship and are great individuals. Their journeys are great and intertwine in exciting ways.
5. Take a trip to Ikea. If you’re anything like me, when things get tense in a book, you get antsy. To get rid of that antsy energy, take a trip to Ikea. Or better yet, get on a plane, get the fuck out of the country. Go see the world. Then come back.
6. Use those smelling salts you keep when you start to swoon because of feels.
7. Dance. It’s finally over. You’ve won
Also, I didn’t get to mention this in the guide but Kit is biracial and is Punjabi-American. I had no idea about this when I dove in the book and screamed with joy when I found out! I think the author has done a pretty good job with rep and while there is some discussion in regard to her identity, since What to Say Next isn’t #ownvoices, the book isn’t about those experiences.
About the Book
I received this book for free from Delacorte Press in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
What to Say Next by Julie Buxbaum
Published by Delacorte Press on July 11, 2017
Genres: Contemporary, Grief, YA
Source: Delacorte Press
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Sometimes a new perspective is all that is needed to make sense of the world.
KIT: I don’t know why I decide not to sit with Annie and Violet at lunch. It feels like no one here gets what I’m going through. How could they? I don’t even understand.
DAVID: In the 622 days I’ve attended Mapleview High, Kit Lowell is the first person to sit at my lunch table. I mean, I’ve never once sat with someone until now. “So your dad is dead,” I say to Kit, because this is a fact I’ve recently learned about her.
When an unlikely friendship is sparked between relatively popular Kit Lowell and socially isolated David Drucker, everyone is surprised, most of all Kit and David. Kit appreciates David’s blunt honesty—in fact, she finds it bizarrely refreshing. David welcomes Kit’s attention and her inquisitive nature. When she asks for his help figuring out the how and why of her dad’s tragic car accident, David is all in. But neither of them can predict what they’ll find. Can their friendship survive the truth?
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