The Last Time We Say Goodbye

My favorite genre to read is young adult fiction. Most of these books are thick with beautiful hardcovers and simple, yet interesting writing styles. You can imagine my excitement when I found a book with an original cover and the promises of tears, smiles, and laughs. The main character even shares my name! This had no faults, it was everything I could dream of. So why am I 150 pages in and bored out of my mind? The main character, Lex, is faced with the trouble of losing her brother to suicide. This is heartbreaking and causes significant mental damage, but none of that is shown through Lex's thoughts or actions. She simply acts like a normal teenager. A lot of emphasis is put on her relationship with her friends and how quickly it has deteriorated, but we never get a taste of the relationship before her brother's death. She just seems like an introverted kid. The rest of the character don't really play a role Lex's life. It's just the internal ramblings of a hormonal teenager. This reminds me of Speak by Laura Halse Anderson. The character has had a tragic event occur and the story focuses on how they react and how it's affected their life, but there is no before. There is nothing to compare it too. As far as the reader knows the character has always been depressed and alone. These stories are from the young girl;s point of view and she complains about the things going wrong; how she has no friends, her family isn't right, she's had this huge thing happen but isn't dealing with. They never end up doing anything about it though. In Speak , another character must save Melinda and even then it doesn't show the change from depressed to happy. I don't see this book taking a much different path. I guess I'd rather watch the shift happen than witness a girl wallow by herself. I'd rather see the event that caused it and feel the same pain as the character feels. I'm hoping all of this comes together later on, but for now, I'm mostly bored. Maybe I'll stop judging books by their cover.