How To Say Goodbye In Robot

This book was recommended to me by the Seattle Public Library's "Your Next Five Reads" feature on their website, where they listed YA books about intelligent, interoverted protagonists. Well, they knocked this one out of the park! Robot Girl and Ghost Boy both felt like the kinds of friends I would have gravitated toward in high school, if not been repelled by with the faint feeling of "how come we didn't get along?" The dramatic arc of the book doesn't get bogged down with life-changing platitudes or miraculous deus ex machinas, and for that I'm thankful. The story follows a couple of teens and how they deal with their problems in unique ways, with greater and lesser degrees of maturity. I would rank this book among the catalogs of show more John Green, A.S. King, and Francesca Lia Block in terms of providing a mature look at late adolescence and the formative experiences that crystallize people as they enter adulthood.

Bonus points for avoiding 'trendy' or 'edgy' uses of sex and drugs to give the story artificial maturity. The story stands on its own. show less

New to town, Beatrice is expecting her new best friend to be one of the girls she meets on the first day. But instead, the alphabet conspires to seat her next to Jonah, aka Ghost Boy, a quiet loner who hasn't made a new friend since third grade. Something about him, though, gets to Bea, and soon they form an unexpected friendship. It's not romance, exactly - but it's definitely love. Still, Bea can't quite dispel Jonah's gloom and doom - and as she finds out his family history, she understands why.

At the center or this story is the complex, platonic relationship between two misfit teens. There's no real romance (which is kinda nice). But the love that develops between these two friends is so much more meaningful and real than anything, say, Bella and Edward ever shared. I was a bit surprised by how much the later developments in the story affected me, but I guess that's what happens when characters are developed well--you care. The complicated family relationships were well-developed and authentic. And you hear everything through Bea's wonderful voice. Don't be misled by the title: there are no robots in this book, but there is a fair amount of quirkiness, humor, heart break, and humanity.

I didn't expect much from this book, but I think I can now safely call it one of the best, most emotionally evocative books I've gotten the chance to read. Many young adult novels discuss the dangers of physically abusive romantic relationships, bypassing the ideas of emotionally abusive relationships as well as abusive platonic relationships, both of which, at least from my vantage point, are huge problems in many teens' lives, and many don't even have the vocabulary for it. It's also one of the few YA books I've read featuring truly introverted protagonists. We have our fill of socially awkward penguins, but most of them do gain their energy through social interaction with others, and that's a little more blurred in this book. I'm show more grateful for Natalie Standiford's courage in writing an important story, and I hope it was able to bring some level of clarity to other readers as it was able to offer me.

Rating: 5/5 show less

Bea's just starting her senior year at a tiny private school. She's the new kid, and alphabetically arranged next to the Weird Kid in assembly, classes, lockers, everything. Jonah may be a little weird in his way--his classmates have been calling him a ghost since seventh grade--but he's also the best friend Bea's ever had.

Oh man I want to give this book to everyone now, because it's the most beautiful example of friend-love, of non-romantic love, of true friendship, that I've seen in a teen novel, um, ever. It's not that it's particularly lyrical or poetic--I mean, Bea describes herself as a robot--but it's so accurate and honest and so so wonderful. Everybody should read this book. At least, everyone who's ever felt like an outcast, show more which is probably like 90% of us who went to middle school? show less

Natalie Standiford carves out a fairly unique niche in this engaging novel: platonic teenage love. Beatrice is going to be a senior in high school when her professor dad moves the family from Ithaca, NY, to Baltimore, MD, for his work. She starts as the new kid at a small, private school where everyone else has gone since they were in kindergarten. There, she is drawn to the outcast, Jonah, who most people call Ghost Boy because of his fair complexion and light hair.

Jonah doesn't have any friends at school, though everyone there knows him and interacts on some level. He keeps to himself and doesn't like to socialize with anyone. Beatrice is drawn to him, and the two forge an unlikely friendship. They bond over their mutual fondness for show more a late-night call-in talk radio show, which is full of a cast of eccentric regulars.

As they get to know each other, Jonah reveals more about himself and his tragic early life. While it help Beatrice to understand why he acts the way he does, she realizes that ultimately it is his burden to bear and he needs to face it his own way.

This novel is unique in that the male and female characters share a deep, platonic love. Jonah gets jealous when she dates other guys, but, as he describes it, it's because he doesn't want to share her attention, not because he wants to date her. And that love, it turns out, can be just as heartbreaking as the other one. show less

“Our friendship was delicate, like a bubble, and I was afraid it would pop if I asked the wrong question.” This is what Bea thinks when a classmate asks about her relationship with Jonah, and that perfectly sums up this book for me. Bea and Jonah’s friendship is lovely and unpleasant, healing and heartbreaking, honest and deceitful all tangled into a complicated knot, and it captivated my heart from the very beginning.
Bea is fairly self-reliant after having moved all over the country with her family, which means she’s gotten good at staying detached from the people and places that are hers for only a short time. She’s a little quirky, but she’s not a loner; although she doesn’t go out of her way to become someone’s best show more friend, she doesn’t go out of her way to avoid people either. Jonah, however, is the boy who’s been in the same place his whole life yet is intentionally free from any ties with the people around him. For some reason, though, he reaches out to Bea. It’s not anything huge at first, but for Jonah it’s a giant step, and that step leads to one of the most confusing, yet somehow insanely honest, portrayals of a friendship I’ve seen in a long time.
I obviously don’t want to say anything that will spoil the story, but I do want to say that, even though I felt like my heart got ripped up a little bit after reading certain parts of the story, every moment of the book felt honest to the nature of the characters. I’ve had friendships similar to the one between Bea and Jonah (in the sense that we weren’t exactly in love with each other, but there was more love for each other than seen in a typical friendship), and those kinds of friendships are almost defined solely by the heartbreaking moments.
This isn’t a book for everyone; it’s bittersweet and the pacing is slow, but I fully connected to the emotion of the characters (especially Bea as it’s she’s the narrator). Although there are various points of the story with more action, the bulk of the story deals with the lesser experiences that formed the bond between Bea and Jonah. Despite the slower pace, this was still a quick read for me, and I was so wrapped up in the story that I didn’t want it to end. show less