Things I'm Seeing Without You
-
- $10.99
Publisher Description
Equal parts heartbreaking, funny, and life-affirming, this is a story about love after the most profound loss, for fans of Jesse Andrews, Rainbow Rowell, and Jennifer Niven.
"Required reading." --John Corey Whaley, winner of the Printz Award
Seventeen-year-old Tess Fowler has dropped out of high school, tossed her laptop in a freezing lake, then jumped in after it fully clothed. Why? Because Jonah was the boy she knew only through texts and emails but understood to his very core. Jonah was the only boy she’d told she loved and the only boy to say it back. And Jonah was the boy whose suicide she never saw coming.
Jonah’s death has sent Tess pinwheeling into grief and confusion. But even though he’s gone, Tess still writes to him. She wants answers to the yawning chasm of questions that’s become her life. At the same time, she’s trying to find solace in her father’s alternative funeral business. Who knew that arranging last rites for prized pets could be so life-affirming? But love, loss, and life are so much more complicated than Tess ever thought . . . especially after she receives a message that turns her already inside-out world totally upside down.
As funny as it is heartbreaking and completely unputdownable, Things I’m Seeing Without You shows us what it means to love someone, to lose someone, to wade through the beautiful/strange agony of the aftermath, and somehow love again.
"Sometimes hilarious, always affecting." --VOYA
"Nails the messiness of grief." --SLJ
"Compelling . . . a draw for fans of Nicola Yoon." --BCCB
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Seventeen-year-old Tess Fowler's life comes apart when her online boyfriend, Jonah, commits suicide. She drops out of school to live with her estranged father, who has started a (not terribly successful) business putting together unusual, life-affirming funerals for animals. Tess begins to help her father with the business, and she realizes that a funeral for Jonah is exactly what she needs to move on. When Tess is contacted by Daniel, Jonah's college roommate and best friend, she learns several surprising things, including that Daniel is in love with her. In his first young adult novel, Bognanni (The House of Tomorrow) tackles several serious issues including depression, suicide, and digital privacy in a book disguised as a quirky love story. While he's successful at building a romantic relationship between Daniel and Tess as they face the aftermath of Jonah's death, the more difficult subject matter, such as the guilt they both carry, is only touched upon. And Bognanni's adult characters are largely one-dimensional, particularly Tess's father, who never moves beyond being a kooky, clueless dad. Ages 14 up.
