How To Say Goodbye in Robot by Natalie Standiford

4.5 stars -- I like it a lot.

How To Say Goodbye in Robot left me feeling meloncholy. It's not usually a feeling I look for in books, but in this case it fits, and it might be exactly the type of feeling the author was trying to convey.

How To Say Goodbye in Robot is about a girl, Bea, who moves to a new town. Her mother becomes overly emotional and irrational after the move and calls Bea a robot when Bea doesn't react as emotionally to things as she does.

This leads to a lot of introspection on the part of Bea. She starts to believe that she might be a robot. Perhaps she isn't reacting as normal people do, isn't feeling what normal people feel. And then she meets Jonah.

Jonah is a hard character to like. He's mean to Bea and manipulative. He's got so much baggage the airlines probably wouldn't let him fly. But Bea loves him and desperately tries to help him.

I really liked how this all came together. I didn't like Jonah, but I didn't fault Bea for liking him. The main plot of the story is slightly ridiculous, but also incredibly sad, and it's easy to see how and why certain characters are affected by others.

Also, I'm a fan of the design of the book. The bright pink pages that mark the months are a fabulous way to show the passage of time, and they break up the monotony of the normal black and white interior of a book. They're unique.

Certainly a worthwhile read!