January Release: Never Eighteen by Megan Bostic

Better not be getting sick of these, dear non-existent readers...because I'm scheduling a whole lot of them. 

A very simple cover, but it also gets the
simplicity of the story across very well

My Pick: Never Eighteen by Megan Bostic
Release Date: January 17th

Austin Parker is on a journey to bring truth, beauty, and meaning to his life. 
Austin Parker is never going to see his eighteenth birthday. At the rate he’s going, he probably won’t even see the end of the year. The doctors say his chances of surviving are slim to none even with treatment, so he’s decided it’s time to let go.

But before he does, Austin wants to mend the broken fences in his life. So with the help of his best friend, Kaylee, Austin visits every person in his life who touched him in a special way. He journeys to places he’s loved and those he’s never seen. And what starts as a way to say goodbye turns into a personal journey that brings love, acceptance, and meaning to Austin’s life.




Warning: definite tearfest ahead.

I honestly don't know if I'm even going to be able to get past the first page of this book. Megan Bostic shows no remorse in letting us know it's going to be a sad book - and not just that, but it's going to be philosophical, melancholy, hopeful, and crushing.

I’m a sporadically emotional reader. I'm unpredictable. I read My Sister's Keeper without shedding a single tear; instead I was left hollow inside, like some girl who can't express herself properly and is reduced to feeling the echoes of sadness and pain and God knows what else instead. I cry at songs and movies, not books. (See the end of Eragon and The Chronicles of Narnia for examples. Not the actual move endings, the music!) But this seems like it's going to be really hardcore stuff. I'll either have to be in a really pessimistic mood only looking to go deeper or else completely prepared for the onslaught that this novel will bring. It's going to be one of those rare books that are so hard to read that every once in a while I'll just have to take a step back and put it down until I'm ready to read again. This book is going to be all about what you'd do if you knew you didn't have long left; and as much as people like to pretend that's not a hard thing to think about, it is. It so is.

But I've been assured the writing in this book is fantastic and no one can believe it's a debut novel; let's just hope all that hard-hitting material is worth it


Allie