Six Goodbyes We Never Said by Candace Ganger ~ 320 pages ~ published 9/24/19 by Wednesday Books
Goodreads Synopsis:
Two teens meet after tragedy and learn about love, loss, and letting go
Naima Rodriguez doesn’t want your patronizing sympathy as she grieves her father, her hero—a fallen Marine. She’ll hate you forever if you ask her to open up and remember him “as he was,” though that’s all her loving family wants her to do in order to manage her complex OCD and GAD. She’d rather everyone back the-eff off while she separates her Lucky Charms marshmallows into six, always six, Ziploc bags, while she avoids friends and people and living the life her father so desperately wanted for her.
Dew respectfully requests a little more time to process the sudden loss of his parents. It’s causing an avalanche of secret anxieties, so he counts on his trusty voice recorder to convey the things he can’t otherwise say aloud. He could really use a friend to navigate a life swimming with pain and loss and all the lovely moments in between. And then he meets Naima and everything’s changed—just not in the way he, or she, expects.
Candace Ganger’s Six Goodbyes We Never Said is no love story. If you ask Naima, it’s not even a like story. But it is a story about love and fear and how sometimes you need a little help to be brave enough to say goodbye.
What I Thought:
*I received this book for free from Wednesday Books (via NetGalley) in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.*
Thank you so much to Wednesday Books and St. Martin’s Publishing for reaching out to me to be part of this blog tour!
When I first heard about this book, I was definitely intrigued. I have not read a ton of books that focus on mental health. The fact that both of the main characters are struggling with different diagnoses made for a very interesting narrative. Add in the fact that it is an #OwnVoices novel, and I was sold!
Of the two main characters, I liked Dew the most, but identified with some of Naima’s struggle. I am generally not a big fan of reading characters that I don’t really like, but I came around to Naima by the end. Dew was a special little sunflower the whole time, and I just wanted to give him a big hug.
I did wish that there was more interaction between Naima and Dew. It felt like their friendship didn’t even really develop until pretty late in the game, and I wished that I could have gotten more of it, since their friendship was really fun to read about. Other than that though, I enjoyed all of the relationships in the novel. I loved Dew’s relationship with his sister, and Naima’s with her grandmother. I have always enjoyed a good family dynamic in a book.
I also learned a little bit more about living with mental health issues. It is so much more difficult than it appears on the outside. I think this is a very important novel, if for no other reason than to elicit compassion and understanding for those suffering through mental illness.
My Rating:
⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1/2
I gave Six Goodbyes We Never Said 3.5 STARS!
Are you interested in learning more about this book? Check out the links below!
Six Goodbyes We Never Said on Goodreads
Purchase Six Goodbyes We Never Said at BN.com
Have you picked up Six Goodbyes We Never Said yet? What are some of your favorite #OwnVoices books? Are there any other great books that deal with mental health that you would recommend? Let’s talk down in the comments!
And thank you, again, to Wednesday Books and St. Martin’s Publishing for reaching out to me to be part of this blog tour!
Love and happy reading,
Whit Reads Lit 
Pingback: Monthly Wrap-Up: September 2019 – Whit Reads Lit