How to Say Goodbye in Robot by Natalie Standiford

From the back cover:
New to town, Bea is expecting her new best friend to be one of the girls she meets on the first day: very cheery, very friendly, very average.  But instead, the alphabet seats her next to Jonah, aka Ghost Boy, a quiet observer who hasn't made a new friend since third grade.  He's not a big fan of people in general... but he's willing to make an exception for her.  Maybe.

Bea and Jonah are not going to have a friendship based on gossip and parties and what everybody else thinks.  Instead, their friendship comes from truth-bound conversations, shared secrets, and late-night calls to the same old-timer radio show.  They help each other and hurt each other, push away and hold close.  It's not exactly romance - but it's definitely love.  And it means more to them than either one can ever really know.


From me:
I will start by admitting that I am a little biased in my opinion of this book because it's set in BALTIMORE!!  The setting was huge for me because I recognized streets, neighborhoods, and the various places that Bea and Jonah visit.  So, so fun! 

If you are not from Baltimore, or you are not as easily excited as I am, maybe this will not be so super cool to you.  That's ok - there is plenty more to love about this book.  One of the best ways to describe the story comes right from the back cover - it's not a romance, but it's definitely the story of Bea and Jonah's love for one another.

Although I found Jonah to be a hard character to like during parts of the book, but I almost found him hard not to like... if that makes any sense.  Since the story is told from Bea's perspective, I think that I couldn't really get into his head until the end of the book, yet I still felt drawn to him and his own story.  Bea seemed to be caught in the middle of a lot of different conflicts for most of the story (ok, maybe two big ones) - having to choose between Jonah and the "normal" kids from school, having to deal with her mom's brand of crazy, while her dad works very long hours as a professor (at Hopkins!).

While the story was kind of strange in some parts, it was mostly a cute and awkward (in a fun to read) story of two people in love.