Ashley Woodfolk

Autumn, Shay, and Logan, whose lives intersect in complicated ways, each lose someone close to them and must work through their grief.

The Beauty That Remains

Jamieson

"If you'd asked me years ago what does love feel like I never would have guessed at our hearts beating, our chests heaving, and the unbearable ache of you leaving. Our hearts beating, our chests heaving, and the unbearable ache of you leaving"


listen, I'm gonna be straight up with you here I only added this to my TBR because Alisha Wainwright narrates one third of this audiobook and I'm super gay for her. (haha jokes I'm gay in general but SHE REALLY HAS A BEAUTIFUL VOICE) 

So I generally DON'T go for books about grief? I just .. don't want to be sad? And I fully believe they can be done SO WELL and have so much impact but lots of the time I just don't feel like them. That being said, this book was surprisingly addictive to me. I was surprised by how often I was reaching for this over other books despite it's content. Ashley Woodfolk definitely managed to get me invested in the characters and their development and the trajectory of their grief as they slowly come to terms with whats happened and that's a damn good feat. 

The Beauty that Remains follows three different teenagers who are all connected through music, and especially the band Unravelling Lovely to which they are all connected. 

🍂 Logan is a gay boy who's ex-boyfriend and first love Bram has committed suicide. Logan has developed alcoholism and doesn't know how to cope with the loss, especially since he feels partly responsible. Logan is the lead singer of Unravelling Lovely but fell out with the band after Bram died
🍂 Shay is a black girl who's identical twin Sasha has just lost her long battle with Leukaemia. Shay doesn't know how to relate to her mum and what to do about the music blog her and Sasha shared. Shay is a fan of Unravelling Lovely and friends with the band members. 
🍂 Autumn is Korean-American and is devastated after her best friend Tavia died in a car accident. Autumn feels guilty because she was secretly dating Tavia's brother and was with him the night she died. Tavia's brother, Dante, is one of the members of Unravelling Lovely. 

The thing this book did best was make me invested in the characters growth I was definitely rooting for every single character and my need to know what happened to them next is what drove my interest. Shay was my favourite character to follow and Autumn my least favourite (she was so bland compared to Logan and Shay?) but I still enjoyed all of them overall. I liked that each was a very unique character and I love that this book had a strong focus on their hobbies, especially music. 

This book did a good job at explaining the backstories of the characters and why their grief was especially palpable but I think that quickly wore off. While I was initially really sad, the grief aspect became a little bit repetitive, especially in Autumn and Logan's chapters. This book wasn't as emotionally impactful as you would have wanted in a book specifically about grief, but it actually kind of worked in this books favour since it meant I wasn't too sad to see what would happen next. 

one thing I really utterly hated was the biphobia Logan's ex-boyfriend Bram is bisexual and in my opinion the portrayal was poorly done and quite hurtful. Bram cheats on both Logan and his new girlfriend which totally affirms the cheating bisexual sterotype. Also, Logan remarks how annoyed he is that "Bram isn't even totally gay" which is a really harmful thing to say about bisexual people since bisexual people are constantly fighting for their validity within the queer community. Logan also says this


  But yeah, I guess it added insult to injury that it was some basic bitch cheerleader and not another guy. How could I even compete with a girl?” [...] “If it had been another guy, I could have convinced him I was the better choice. But if he wanted a girl, he couldn’t also want me.


I found this line to be both sexist and also biphobic. The implication that a bi person can be swayed from their relationships is harmful, and also the anger directed at bi boys for dating women. Although Logan later becomes friends with the cheerleader, the biphobia itself in any of these examples is never challenged and I found it upsetting to read and I'm still unsettled by it now. I think that this trope, which is really prevalent and quite harmful needed to be more directly challenged on page. I would NOT recommend this book to bisexual people for the bi rep specifically, but I also want to note this IS ownvoices for black rep so by no means do I think people shouldn't read it. 

ADD ON: I discussed this book and the bi representation with the author, and I want to make a note that Bram is intended to be both bisexual and also polyam, and him falling in love with multiple people wasn't the same as cheating. I personally didn't pick up on this aspect, but I'm putting this note in here for others information <3


  “The number of ifs and what-ifs are infinite, and I keep listing them – trying to convince myself or Dante, or maybe you, that I’m sorry, that life and death are random, that we can’t control anything except how we deal with it all now.” 


Overall this is one of those books I enjoyed and mostly liked but that I wouldn't ever reread. I don't have LOTS of strong feelings toward it, but I would totally read another book by this author and actually I would love a spin-off about Shay or Logan. 

trigger warnings: suicide, biphobia, drug use, grief, death, car accidents, leukaemia, physical violence

actual rating: 3.5 stars

Flavia Louise

There were lots of parts in this book that I loved but ultimately it didn't come together well enough for me to give it the 5 stars.

anderson elizabeth

this book made me cry in the best way possible so many times

Kath Lau

READ MY FULL REVIEW HERE

We follow the story of Autumn, Shay and Logan in this debut novel of Ashley Woodfolk. The three of them have recently lost someone important in their lives. Autumn lost her best friend to car accident, Shay lost her twin sister to leukemia, and Logan lost his ex-boyfriend to suicide. Each of them has their own way of dealing with their loss and grief. But until when they can accept the fact that they cannot bring back the lives of their loved ones no matter how hard they try?

Huge thanks to PRH International for sending me an ARC!

CW/TW: grief, loss of loved one, suicide, drinking/drug use

This was a fantastic book and the audio was really well done too. I'll be honest, it was slow going because I just WAS NOT in a contemporary mood a little after starting this. But that didn't take away from how well this book presents some really tough issues.

Irin 

Rating- All The Stars In the Universe. 💜
MEET MY NEW FAVORITE BOOK. 
I got this book last May, and I really regret not picking it up sooner. 😭
The story is told from the POV of three characters- Autumn, Shay and Logan. Each of them have lost important people in their lives. The story revolves around them dealing with their grief and fixing up their broken pieces with the help of some amazing friends, and music. 
I loved how the author didn't complicate the plot at all and kept the storyline really simple. All of the characters were diverse and each of them were unique in their own way. Losing someone who matters the most to you isn't easy. Even though I have never faced the grief of losing the people I love, I think The Beauty That Remains did an excellent job of representing the feelings and emotions of people who have to see the people they love die. The way Shay, Autumn's and Logan's friends supported them in their hardest times, through panic attacks, nightmares and depression, made me feel so weirdly relieved. I felt so happy knowing that these three heart-broken humans had people who loved them endlessly around them. Frienships are the best part of this book in my opinion. And the music. I wish the band Unraveling Lovely existed in real life so that I could listen to their songs while reading this book. If you love books with amazing friendships and music which will break you and fix you all over again, pick this up! 💜

Bria

Danielle Annika

Told from three diverse points of view, this story of life and love after loss is one Angie Thomas, author of The Hate U Give, believes "will stay with you long after you put it down." We've lost everything...and found ourselves. Loss pulled Autumn, Shay, and Logan apart. Will music bring them back together? Autumn always knew exactly who she was: a talented artist and a loyal friend. Shay was defined by two things: her bond with her twin sister, Sasha, and her love of music. And Logan has always turned to writing love songs when his real love life was a little less than perfect. But when tragedy strikes each of them, somehow music is no longer enough. Now Logan is a guy who can't stop watching vlogs of his dead ex-boyfriend. Shay is a music blogger who's struggling to keep it together. And Autumn sends messages that she knows can never be answered. Despite the odds, one band's music will reunite them and prove that after grief, beauty thrives in the people left behind. "Woodfolk's debut cuts deeply and then wipes your tears away. Wrenching, heartfelt, and vividly human." --Becky Albertalli, author of Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda "Haunting, heart-wrenching, and powerful...a tearjerker must-read for teens!" --Dhonielle Clayton, author of the Belles series and coauthor of the Tiny Pretty Things series "This books hurts so good. With three distinct narrators and lyrical prose, Ashley Woodfolk stakes her claim as a fresh new voice to follow in the world of young adult literature."--Julie Murphy, author of Ramona Blue and Dumplin'

Courtney

vika

Satya Nelms

Lola Money

Megan

Amanda Kordeliski

Danny Glasner

Told from three diverse points of view, this story of life and love after loss is one Becky Albertalli, author of Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, says "cuts deeply, and then wipes your tears away." We've lost everything . . and found ourselves. Music brought Autumn, Shay, and Logan together. Death might pull them apart. Autumn always knew exactly who she was- a talented artist and a loyal friend. Shay was defined by two things- her bond with her twin sister, Sasha, and her love of music. And Logan has always turned to writing love songs when his real love life was a little less than perfect. But when tragedy strikes each of them, somehow music is no longer enough. Now Logan is a guy who can't stop watching vlogs of his dead ex-boyfriend. Shay is a music blogger who's struggling to keep it together. And Autumn has become a girl who sends messages that she knows can never be answered. Each of them wonders- How different would my life be if this hadn't happened? And now that it has . . . what's next?

Jasmin 

Samantha

Alex Hill 

We've lost everything...and found ourselves. Loss pulled Autumn, Shay, and Logan apart. Will music bring them back together? Autumn always knew exactly who she was- a talented artist and a loyal friend. Shay was defined by two things- her bond with her twin sister, Sasha, and her love of music. And Logan has always turned to writing love songs when his real love life was a little less than perfect. But when tragedy strikes each of them, somehow music is no longer enough. Now Logan is a guy who can't stop watching vlogs of his dead ex-boyfriend. Shay is a music blogger who's struggling to keep it together. And Autumn sends messages that she knows can never be answered. Despite the odds, one band's music will reunite them and prove that after grief, beauty thrives in the people left behind. "Woodfolk's debut cuts deeply and then wipes your tears away. Wrenching, heartfelt, and vividly human." --Becky Albertalli, author of Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda "Haunting, heart-wrenching, and powerful...a tearjerker must-read for teens!" --Dhonielle Clayton, author of the Belles series and coauthor of the Tiny Pretty Things series "This books hurts so good. With three distinct narrators and lyrical prose, Ashley Woodfolk stakes her claim as a fresh new voice to follow in the world of young adult literature."--Julie Murphy, author of Ramona Blue and Dumplin'

The Beauty That Remains

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