Review by Booklist Review
A year ago, Leo went to a party with her older sister, Nina, and Nina's boyfriend, East. By the end of the night, Nina was dead, killed by a drunk driver. East, though he remembers the accident, can't bring himself to talk about it; for Leo, it's a blank space in her memory. Over the course of the next year, Leo grieves her sister. She both loves and fights with her mother, who is overwhelmed with her own grief. Leo and East test the boundaries of their new, suddenly fraught friendship. And Leo tries to move on with the ordinary parts of life that she now has to navigate without Nina, like making friends at school and celebrating, albeit with some complicated emotions, the birth of a new stepsibling. National Book Award--winning Benway chooses to tell the story backward, opening it a year after Nina's death and ending it just before the party, so the narrative steps in slow vignettes into the immediacy of Leo's grief. A nuanced, sensitive capture of a devastating event and the life beyond it.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Told in reverse chronology, Benway's moving story of grief begins exactly one year after a family's tragic loss. Fifteen-year-old Leo's older sister Nina, 17, was killed in a car accident while driving home from a party 365 days ago; an accident that Leo, despite living it, doesn't remember. Now 16, all Leo can recall is leaving the party and seeing the police car's lights after a drunk driver plowed into the siblings' vehicle. In the days since the accident, Leo's family has struggled to navigate their heartbreak ("Grief still comes in waves, pulling the memory of Nina closer and then further away"). Leo's closest confidant is Nina's former boyfriend, East, who knows the truth of what happened that devastating night--but he won't tell Leo. As the clock winds back and details slowly emerge, Benway (Far from the Tree) highlights pivotal days throughout the year, rendering a persuasive portrait of heartache and loss. While the conclusion lacks the narrative's emotional intensity, suspense, unanswered questions, and raw emotion blend together in an honest examination of one family's varying symptoms and stages of grief. Most characters cue as white. Ages 13--up. Agent: Lisa Grubka, Fletcher & Co. (June)
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 9 Up--A beautiful story of a sister grieving and learning to move on. The year before, Leo's sister Nina died in a car accident, the details of which she can't remember. Nina's boyfriend, East, was there that night, and he remembers what took place, bearing the memory of it all. Leo asks East to tell her what happened, but he won't say anything, believing he's protecting her. Leo faces many challenges throughout the first year after Nina's death without her to lean on. The story opens with Nina's memorial service and is told through a backwards time line, ending with the night of the accident. Benway skillfully connects the chapters despite the reverse chronology. Each chapter title lets readers know the date and how long it has been since the accident, making the events easy to follow. While it is clear to readers that the time line will end with the accident and Nina's death, there are still surprises throughout. Most characters are cued as white. VERDICT This story will stay with readers long after they have finished the book; a first purchase for libraries.--Amanda Borgia
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A young woman in Southern California struggles with the agony of her sister's death from a car accident. Sixteen-year-old Leo's favorite person was her older sister, Nina, whose outspoken, funny persona endeared her to many. In a series of chronologically reversed vignettes over the course of the year since Nina's death, ending with one that takes place just hours before the accident that takes her life, Benway presents a nuanced, realistic portrait of the losses experienced by those closest to Nina--Leo; their mother, father, and stepmother; and Nina's boyfriend, East. The novel's structure is an interesting and mostly successful narrative technique: While the movement of time can be a little difficult to track, the dates that preface each chapter, labeled in terms of where they fall in relation to the accident, help to keep the timeline from becoming too confusing so readers can focus on the moving exploration of grief in all its unpredictable messiness. Authentic, often sarcastically funny dialogue and texts bring a lightness and grim humor to interactions Leo has with East and others. Her divorced parents and stepmother are poignantly developed secondary characters, and the intricate dynamics of Leo's relationships with each of them underscore the ripple effect that occurs in families following a tragic loss. All the main characters seem to be White and middle class. An intelligent, compassionate examination of a family enduring a nightmare. (Fiction. 13-18) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
