Week 45 Review: The Stepping Off Place

From Goodreads:

From debut author Cameron Kelly Rosenblum comes a stunning teen novel that tackles love, grief, and mental health as one girl must process her friend's death and ultimately learn how to stand in her own light. Perfect for fans of All the Bright Places and We Were Liars.

It's the summer before senior year. Reid is in the thick of Scofield High's in-crowd thanks to her best friend, Hattie, who has been her social oxygen since middle school.

But summer is when Hattie goes to her family's Maine island home. Instead of sitting inside for eight weeks, waiting for her to return, Reid and their friend, Sam, enter into a pact—to live it up, one party at a time.

But days before Hattie is due home, Reid finds out the shocking news that Hattie has died by suicide. Driven by a desperate need to understand what went wrong, Reid searches for answers.

In doing so, she uncovers painful secrets about the person she thought she knew better than herself. And the truth will force Reid to reexamine everything.

My Review:
This was a really terrific book! I did get it because of FOMO, because contemporary books aren't really my thing. But this is such a heart touching story of grief and loss, and dealing with the fact that her best friend is gone by her own hand. Difficult topics, but very well done in this book.

As well as dealing with grief, this is a story of these friends, and learning some new information about them, that might have changed the friendship if Hattie hadn't ended things. That's difficult to navigate through, the loss, and the loss of the knowledge of being secure in knowing who the other person was.

It was difficult, but I'm glad that Reid learns more about Hattie. Knowing the truth, no matter how difficult it is, is better than believing a lie or mistruth. Watching as Reid find out these secrets that Hattie was keeping, I had to know how it was going to resolve!

Reid is a survivor, which was great to read about, knowing that she's going to get through this situation. It's not easy by any measure, but like the saying goes, what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger. So that was at least a bit of something positive out of what had happened. 

I'm not sure if this is a series like Goodreads tells me is (I don't think it is) but I can't wait to read more by Cameron Kelly Rosenblum! 

Author: Cameron Kelly Rosenblum
Read: November 6th, 2024
Source: Edelweiss
Reason Why: Sounded really good, and it's a DAC Book and a SAC 2024 Book!
Publisher: Quill Tree Books
Published: July 28th 2020

5/5 Hearts

4/5 Books

4/5 Stars