While certainly not the best novel ever written, I think this book is going to be extremely popular among teenage girls. Dealing with death, letting go, first love and goodbyes, the last ten pages of "Everything Left Unsaid" had me in tears. Tia and Juliet are the teenage protagonists and they narrate alternating chapters. Sometimes events became a bit repetitive because of this, but not enough to be annoying. They have been friends since kindergarten and the reader travels with them through their last year of secondary school. My favourite characters are Tia's younger brothers. I love their down-to-earth, curious view of Tia's sickness. Watching Tia's demise is heart-breaking, a young man without a future, and his downhill slide is poignant and realistic. This is a box of tissues read! ( )

I love the set up of the book, the dual perspective gives such an insight into the characters and both sides of the story.
This is such a heavy story, and the grief comes off the page and grabs me and didn't let go until the last page. I nearly cried every other page and felt such hope, pain and love while reading. It is the ultimate story of loss from both ends.
I loved the relationship between Juliet and Tai, it felt so authentic and sweet. They'd been friends forever and boyfriend and girlfriend for a while. They had the history behind them to make their relationship build, not just be told that they are in love. We get the little moments, glimpses into their routines and just how they interact with each other, and I was sold.
I really appreciated how this book showed not only how cancer effects the one who is sick and they one they love that loves them, it also features strong family ties. I loved Mia, Tai's mother as well as his brothers River and . It gives such a child-like view into what is going on and how they deal with the grief. It was nice that Tai and Juliet weren't in their own little bubble, seeing their family involvement makes it all the more real to me.
This story gets a little gritty at time, mention of blood, peeing, pain and the like, but it is not graphic, and I think that it really adds power to the story.
I think that it gets across that life doesn't always give us what we want, and things can't have a happy ending, but that you have to find your own strength to go on, and accept what comes at you. But that even though you have to find your own way, that your family and friends will be there for you and with you, if you allow yourself to be helped.
Bottom Line: It was a very heavy and emotional story and it was just what I needed in a book right now. ( )