Imagine a world in which you never have to say goodbye.
A world in which you can talk to your loved ones after they've gone-
About the trivial things you used to share. About the things you wish you'd said while you still had the chance. About how hard it is to adjust to life without them.
When Sam Elling invents a computer programme that enables his girlfriend Meredith to do just this, nothing can prepare them for the success and the complications that follow. For every person who wants to say goodbye, there is someone else who can't let go. And when tragedy strikes, they have to find out whether goodbye has to be forever. Or whether love can take on a life of its own...
This book has been compared to One Day by David Nicholls and I can completely understand why. Laurie Frankel gives us two brilliant characters in Sam and Meredith and we get to be part of their relationship from the very beginning.
Laurie Frankel has quite a snappy style of writing, it almost feels like a stream of consciousness at certain points which gives a real feeling of intimacy with the characters.
Goodbye For Now obviously deals a lot with death and this gives rise to many questions. Would you want to keep in touch with your loved ones, what would you say, would you keep things from them and would there ever be a time when you could say goodbye forever?
I think what I liked most about this book is that it was entirely believable . We use the Internet so much to communicate that I didn't find the idea of Sam creating this programme to be far fetched at all. It did make me think about communicating in this way though. Is it a good thing that we can email and video call people who are far away or does it make us lazy in that we feel less urgency to go and visit them in person?
I highly recommend Goodbye For Now, it's such an interesting idea and I loved how many questions it left me with.
Dot Scribbles Rating: 4/5
