A Beginner's Guide to Goodbye
“A Beginner’s Guide to Goodbye” by Melanie Mosher was an incredibly tender and deeply emotional read. The beauty of the writing was soft but powerful, carrying immense weight in just a few words.
We follow Laney, a ten-year-old girl who is completely swallowed by guilt and sorrow after the sudden death of her sister, Jenny. The guilt wraps around her like a second skin, and so she writes letters to her sister instead of speaking aloud. The way the author crafted Laney’s inner world felt so raw and intimate, like reading a diary written with invisible ink only grief could reveal. It wasn’t only Laney who went silent after the death of Jenny. Her mother shuts down completely, her father throws himself into work to avoid the truth. Her older sister turns cold and bossy, trying to hold things together through control. What the author captures so beautifully is how everyone grieves differently, and how loss can make strangers out of people who used to feel like home. But what truly gave the story life was the unexpected friendship between Laney and her neighbor, Miss Lucy, who is also dealing with her own kind of grief. Through connecting, communicating, and healing with Miss Lucy, Laney finds a way to accept and face the day.
I loved how Melanie Mosher portrayed Laney’s growth. Laney learns to speak again to her family and to the memory of her sister, like grief is a language they were trying to relearn. She begins to understand that saying goodbye doesn’t mean forgetting someone. It just means learning how to carry them with you differently.
I recommend “A Beginner’s Guide to Goodbye” by Melanie Mosher to anyone who has ever felt the ache of loss or the fear of moving forward. It’s not just a story about death; it’s a story about what comes after. About how love doesn’t disappear, even when people do. This book will allow space for hurt, for silence, and for moments of courage.