How to Say Goodbye in Robot is a contemporary young adult novel about a pair of oddball high schoolers. Beatrice moves to a new town and meets an outcast named Jacob who has been called Ghost boy by his classmates for years because of his strange behavior. They share a love for oddball late night radio and although are never involved romantically have a link and a true friendship that is unusual. Beatrice frequently has to decide between living a normal teen existence and her strange friend Jacob that she cares for.
This is a very nice contemporary romance. It strays from the predictable and is great for readers who are sick of typical high school romances about perfect girls who obsess over the high school hottie.
Appropriateness: Although this book has no sex it has a lot of illegal substance use. Justin and Beatrice go to bars and drink (and somehow get home because they drive after both drinking at a bar) and they hang with stoners at parties. They don't seem to get plastered at any time but they drink a lot. Because of this I wouldn't recommend this book to middle schoolers unless a parent is going to discuss drinking with them afterwords.
Review copy obtained from Amazon Vine
