How to Say Goodbye in Robot: Review

Title: How to say Goodbye in Robot
Author: Natalie Standiford
Release Date: October 2009
Published By: Scholastic Press
Genre: Contemporary
Pages: 276 pages
Goodreads Rating: 3.84 stars

Review: Bea's the new girl in town, and she expects to be like a normal teenager and make normal friends. However, she's not really the most normal girl in the world, and she calls herself "Robot Girl" because of a lack of emotion. She meets another boy, who, like her, is far from normal - Jonah, a.k.a "Ghost Boy", a boy who is slowly disappearing. They become friends, and then something more - not a romance, but still love. Except as hard as she tries, Robot Girl can't stop Ghost Boy from fading away, and increasingly she wonders: is it time to let him go?

I don't think my review could do this book justice. HOW TO SAY GOODBYE IN ROBOT is quirky, odd, intense, touching, and sorrowful. Despite Bea's supposed lack of feelings, she is still as emotional as anyone else, and I could feel my heart aching alongside hers. Her relationship with Jonah is impossible to characterize - not friends, not lovers, they simply are. He enters her world and turns it upside down, continuing to affect her long after he's gone and changing her in ways she never anticipated.

The prose in this book is somewhat understated, unlike the flowery, in-your-face beautiful words I often find myself enjoying. The words here were quiet and unassuming, but were in their own way gorgeous and lovely, much like the story told as a whole. Even though the characters are broken, this is still not a depressing book, because it's also funny and sweet and authentic. This is life captured and pressed down on pages; this is the kind of book you could read over and over again, because as much as we might sometimes feel it, life never gets old.

HOW TO SAY GOODBYE IN ROBOT is a masterpiece. It seems simple but is so complex, speaking not of friendship, not of romance, but of love. The book moved along at a slow, steady pace that was absolutely perfect, and the beauty of the story was reflected in the typography of the book itself. Don't be fooled by the candy-pink cover. This book has earned its place in my top-five all-time favorites.