The publisher kindly sent me a physical copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
Music brought Autumn, Shay, and Logan together. Death wants to tear 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 always turned to writing love songs when his love life was a little less than perfect.
But when tragedy strikes each of them, somehow music is no longer enough. Now Logan can’t stop watching vlogs of his dead ex-boyfriend. Shay is a music blogger 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.
The Beauty that Remains Review
The Beauty that Remains is one of those books I thought I would love, but didn’t.
There are a few things in this book I enjoyed but also a few things I didn’t like. Because of this, I just think that this book isn’t one for me.
The synopsis of this book is really intriguing. While I don’t typically read books about grief, I was curious about this one. I think it’s because I liked that each character is linked because of music. Becky Albertalli also blurbed it, which intrigued me.
I love music – it’s been a big part of my life. Because of this, I really do love that music is a huge part of this book. I liked seeing how each character interacted with music and how it helped them.
The storyline is relatively enjoyable in this book and has a good pace. At times it’s a bit slow, but I think this is because of the characters and not the actual storyline.
While I enjoy different perspectives, I just could not connect to these characters. While Shay and Logan are interesting, I didn’t really enjoy them. Although I enjoyed parts of Autumn’s story, I was never truly invested in any of these characers.
However, all these characters are diverse. It plays a major role in their development and I think it’s a really important factor in this book. I did enjoy this aspect.
My biggest issue in this book is the use of profanities. While this is a minor issue for some, I just really didn’t enjoy it in this book. Now, I don’t really care about the use of swearing, especially in books. Sometimes it’s necessary, and totally fitting for the situation.
But the use of profanities in this book is excessive and completely unnecessary in my opinion. It completely turned me off of reading at times because it felt so forced. I just think that the swearing is gratuitious and unnecessary in this book.
Overall, The Beauty that Remains is a decent debut novel but not really for me. I think it just falls flat and isn’t particularly my taste.
Rating: ★★☆☆☆
Favourite Quote
I can’t stand on my own in a world where you don’t exist.
About the Author
Ashley Woodfolk graduated from Rutgers University with a BA in English and her life-long love of books led her straight to the publishing industry. She’s a member of the CBC Diversity Committee and markets books for children and teens. In her abundance of “spare” time, she writes contemporary YA. Indie movies, beer, books, and burgers are a few of her favorite things. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and pit bull puppy, Winnie. The Beauty that Remains is her debut novel.
Goodreads | Instagram | Twitter | Website
Buy The Beauty that Remains
Amazon CA | Amazon US | Book Depository | Indigo
Pin for Later!
This sounds like a really complicated book–it’s good to see a more critical review on this one because I’ve been looking forward to its publication. This gave me a more balanced perspective of it. Overall, would you recommend this one?
I’m glad you enjoyed my review! Overall, I would recommend others to check it out. It was a really intriguing story to me and I wanted to love it, I just felt it wasn’t for me. But Woodfolk is a strong writer and I think it definitely has the potential to be good book for someone else! If you end up reading it, let me know your thoughts!