Response to Megan Lindsey

In "title" the main character is hit with the news that her best friend since fifth grade, Clara Daily, has become a suicide victim. Unsure as to what could have driven such a popular, seemingly happy girl to end her own life, the main character goes to Birmingham looking for answers and to say her final goodbyes. While in Birmingham, the main character discovers a journal of Clara's that offers some insight into her untimely death, which ultimately helps the main character to become more at peace with the situation.

I liked how the story was told from the view of Clara's best friend instead of an immediate relative, because it proved she was truly cared about by people other than her parents. I appreciated how the author showed us the fifth grade Clara and main character, then progressed to middle school, etc. to show how their friendship grew and what type of person Clara was. I think the specific details such as eating strawberry twizzlers on the bus added a nice touch, because it showed that the main character treasured those moments with Clara enough to remember small details such as that. It really touched me when the main character braided her hair for the funeral in the way Clara liked it, because I think that line proved that the main character had faith that Clara would be looking down on her during the funeral.

Throughout the story I couldn't decide if the narrator or Clara was the main character of the story. Since Clara is dead, I would assume that the narrator is the main character. However, unless I missed this while reading the story, the narrator is never given a name. This makes the story a little confusing, and made this review hard to write because I keep having to refer to the narrator as "the main character" which makes her feel like a faceless person to me. The story seemed to move at a really fast pace, and I think some more dialogue could be added; for example, when the main character/narrator goes to Clara's house, she sees Mrs. Daily. From just reading the story, it looks like the narrator doesn't even speak to Mrs. Daily, but just goes straight to Clara's room. I assume they spoke to one another, since most people don't just show up at someone's home after they've passed away and just barge in the house without speaking to anyone there. Dialogue at this point could've been used to help the readers understand what kind of people Clara's parents were, which would have made it easier to understand why in her letter she speaks so much about the pressure to be perfect. In general I felt like I was reading a summary of a story and not an actual story; if everything was expanded on more I think this piece would have more of the intended emotional impact the author wanted it to have.