The Last Thing You Said

by Sara Biren

Overview

Lucy always loved summers on Halcyon Lake--sunning on the lake raft, relaxing on the boat, and spending every possible minute with her best friend, Trixie, and Trixie's brother, Ben, Lucy's lifelong crush. Until last summer, when one tragic event turned their idyllic world upside down. Now, nothing is the same. This summer, Trixie is gone, and Ben is distant, numbing his pain with parties and a string of interchangeable girlfriends.
         Lucy does her best to move on and avoid this cold new Ben. She throws herself into babysitting, waitressing, and a sweet new romance with the renter next door. But in their small lake town, forgetting the past--and Ben--proves impossible. He still seems to be everywhere: at work, at the movies . . . and in Lucy's heart. Lucy so wants to move on, but how can she forgive when she can't forget?
          The Last Thing You Said is a deeply felt and romantic novel about listening to your heart and finding your path, whether that path leads to romance, healing, or your best self.

"A heartwarming story about the indelible marks left by first love and first loss. This book will give you all the feels." --Julix Buxbaum, author of Tell Me Three Things, a New York Times bestseller
"A beautiful, gut-wrenching story about the complexities of grief and the saving grace of family, friendship, and love. Brave, raw, and exquisitely written." --Marci Lyn Curtis, author of The One Thing
"A beautiful look at the enduring power of first love." --S.M. Parker, author of The Girl Who Fell

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781683350668
Publisher:	ABRAMS
Publication date:	04/04/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	300,266
File size:	6 MB
Age Range:	14 - 17 Years

About the Author

Sara Biren is the author of The Last Thing You Said. She earned an MFA in Creative Writing from Minnesota State University, Mankato, and has had several short stories published in literary journals. She lives outside of Minneapolis with her husband and two children. Visit Sara at sarabiren.com.

Editorial Reviews

"Biren’s tender story aches as the teens and their families try to put the pieces of their lives together again and find a way to heal... The compelling story will leave readers feeling the characters’ pain and cheering for them at the same time—and looking forward to more from this author."

Booklist

"A beautiful, gut-wrenching story about the complexities of grief and the saving grace of family, friendship, and love. Brave, raw, and exquisitely written."

author of THE ONE THING Marci Lyn Curtis

"This is a brave debut, a brave look at the raw, messy, confusing bits of young love"

author of THE GIRL WHO FELL. S.M. Parker

"Biren’s tender story aches as the teens and their families try to put the pieces of their lives together again and find a way to heal... The compelling story will leave readers feeling the characters’ pain and cheering for them at the same time—and looking forward to more from this author."

Booklist

01/01/2017
Gr 9 Up—When the pain is too much, sometimes you have to give it away. So it is for Ben and Lucy, who were on the verge of something special when Ben's sister, Trixie, who was also Lucy's best friend, died unexpectedly. The day of Trixie's funeral, Ben lashed out at Lucy, and the two of them have been finding ways to hurt each other in the months since. They can neither avoid each other in their small resort town nor ignore the lingering feelings they have for each other despite dating other people. As both begin to move beyond their own grief, they are drawn back together. Fans of Sarah Dessen and Huntley Fitzpatrick's books will find much to love in this emotional romance. The inclusion of Ben's point of view is effective and sets the novel apart in a sea of stories with one-sided pining. The setting, a small Minnesota town, is fully realized and gives added depth to the characterizations as well. However, the appropriation of an Inuit cultural practice, inuksuk, as a symbol for the two white teens' relationship is a poor choice. VERDICT Cultural appropriation mars an otherwise promising debut that's recommended for libraries with a high demand for romance.—Elizabeth Saxton, Tiffin, OH

School Library Journal

★ 2017-01-17
The first summer after Trixie's death is a hard one for all the families who knew her, especially for her best friend, Lucy, and Trixie's brother, Ben.Though they were close when Trixie was alive, now that she's gone they can't seem to find a way to be together that doesn't hurt. So the two white teens try to stay away from each other. But that's not easy in their small Minnesota town, especially when they both work for the same family at a lakeside resort. Will they ever be able to find their way back to the comfort and love that existed between them before a bad case of survivors' guilt made everything inescapably sad? Lucy's cute new neighbor and Ben's habit of using girls to distract him from his feelings make the situation even more complicated. Biren's debut novel offers a tender look at a particular moment in the lives of two teens, a moment that feels real and uncontrived. Her book begins after the tragedy, and Biren proves deft at filling in the back story without overshadowing the problems of the present. New friends and young cousins provide some levity and comic relief that work well against the backdrop of raw emotion. The best kind of tragic love story. (Fiction. 15-18)

Kirkus Reviews