The Way Back to You

by Michelle Andreani, Mindi Scott

Overview

For fans of Jenny Han and Morgan Matson, a witty, poignant novel about second chances, letting go, and the unbreakable bonds of friendship.

Six months ago, Ashlyn Montiel died in a bike accident. Her best friend, Cloudy, is keeping it together, at least on the outside. Cloudy’s insides are a different story: tangled, confused, heartbroken.

Kyle is falling apart, and everyone can tell. Ashlyn was his girlfriend, and when she died, a part of him went with her. Maybe the only part he cares about anymore.

As the two people who loved Ashlyn best, Cloudy and Kyle should be able to lean on each other. But after a terrible mistake last year, they’re barely speaking. So when Cloudy discovers that Ashlyn’s organs were donated after her death and the Montiel family has been in touch with three of the recipients, she does something a little bit crazy and a lot out of character: she steals the letters and convinces Kyle to go on a winter break road trip with her, from Oregon to California to Arizona to Nevada. Maybe if they see the recipients—the people whose lives were saved by Ashlyn’s death—the world will open up again.

Or maybe it will be a huge mistake.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062386304
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	05/03/2016
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.40(d)
Age Range:	13 - 17 Years

About the Author

Michelle Andreani was born and raised in New York City and has never lived anywhere else. (But she would like to try at some point.) She enjoys staying in, singing along, and stories with big hearts. The Way Back to You is her first novel.

Mindi Scott is the author of Freefall and Live Through This, and coauthor of Violent Ends and The Way Back to You. She lives near Seattle, Washington. Please visit her online at mindiscott.com.

Editorial Reviews

It’s rare for a book that makes me cry to also make me laugh out loud. The Way Back to You manages to be utterly truthful about grief: that there is still warmth, humor, and love in the wreckage.” — Emery Lord, author of When We Collided and Open Road Summer

“By turns humorous and affecting, The Way Back to You is an engaging story of loss, grief, and the journey back to joy.” — Emma Mills, author of First & Then

From the Publisher

It’s rare for a book that makes me cry to also make me laugh out loud. The Way Back to You manages to be utterly truthful about grief: that there is still warmth, humor, and love in the wreckage.

Emery Lord

By turns humorous and affecting, The Way Back to You is an engaging story of loss, grief, and the journey back to joy.

Emma Mills

04/01/2016
Gr 8 Up—After 16-year-old Ashlyn Montel dies in a bicycle accident, her best friend Claudia (Cloudy) Marlowe and her boyfriend Kyle Ocie both have problems moving on. But while Cloudy internalizes her grief, Kyle just falls apart. They're not even friends anymore, so they suffer separately. Then Cloudy finds out that Ashlyn's organs were donated after her death, and stumbles upon printouts of emails from some of the recipients. She impulsively grabs the emails and decides that she needs to visit these people, none of whom live closer than a seven-hour drive from her home in Bend, OR. Realizing that she shouldn't do the trip on her own (and not just because her rattletrap car couldn't manage it), she convinces Kyle to accompany her. Of course he's reluctant at first but finally agrees, thinking they're only going to Sacramento, CA, and back. As the journey progresses through California to Arizona and then Nevada, the two former friends begin to come to terms with their grief. VERDICT This is a moving and compelling exploration of the different ways to process grief. For YA collections looking for well-crafted realistic fiction.—Marlyn Beebe, Long Beach Public Library, CA

School Library Journal

2016-02-17
After a loved one dies, two teens embark on a road trip to visit the recipients of her donated organs. Cheerleader Cloudy is devastated by the sudden death of her teammate and longtime best friend, Ashlyn, as is Ashlyn's boyfriend, baseball-champion Kyle. Though they're both grieving, they handle their emotions differently: Cloudy, although wrestling with things internally, keeps a cool exterior; Kyle is more outwardly emotional and upset. When Cloudy discovers that Ashlyn's organs have been donated—and sees the list of recipients—she decides that she and Kyle need to take a road trip to see the people who are now able to live because of Ashlyn's gifts. On the road, the pair must confront their feelings about Ashlyn's death and, in time, slowly learn that they have feelings for each other. In alternating chapters from Cloudy's and Kyle's perspectives, their dual narratives thoughtfully and realistically explore their raw feelings of grief and heartache as they meet the people who were able to live because of the death of their friend. However, at times, their voices can sound oddly similar and muddled. Their inevitable romance meanders, feeling boilerplate and blandly vanilla, right down to their white, middle-class, popular, cheerleader-and-jock characterizations. Ambitious but uneven; expect only the most die-hard romance fans to swoon over this. (Fiction. 13-16)

Kirkus Reviews