The Last to Let Go by Amber Smith - OPTIONAL

Smith, Amber  The Last to Let Go, 369 pages. Margaret K. McElderry Books (Simon and Schuster), 2018. $18. Content: Language: R (73 swears; 18 “f”); Mature Content: PG-13; Violence: PG-13.  

Brooke is an intelligent friendless junior in high school, but she plans on getting into a better school and remaking herself.  When she arrives home from school one day, she is surprised to see the police and ambulance there, and immediately assumes that her father has finally taken his abuse too far and killed her mother.  What she finds however, is that her mother has killed her father.  Brooke’s life is about to be remade, but not in the way she was planning.  

This book dives into the aftermath of domestic abuse.  Brooke tries to hold her siblings together and wants to fight for her mother’s case in court, but she has to deal with her own insecurities and issues instead.  As far as content, this book has domestic abuse, she’s sees her father’s dead body, homosexual make-out sessions and underage drinking.  

HS – OPTIONAL.  Reviewer, C. Peterson.