I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Early Departures by Justin A. Reynolds Published by Katherine Tegen Books on 9/22/20
Genres: Contemporary, Young Adult
Pages: 480
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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What if you could bring your best friend back to life—but only for a short time?
Jamal’s best friend, Q, doesn’t know that he died, and that he’s about to die . . . again. He doesn’t know that Jamal tried to save him. And that the reason they haven’t been friends for two years is because Jamal blames Q for the accident that killed his parents.
But what if Jamal could have a second chance? A new technology allows Q to be reanimated for a few weeks before he dies . . . permanently. And Q’s mom is not about to let anyone ruin this miracle by telling Q about his impending death. So how can Jamal fix everything if he can’t tell Q the truth?
Short and Sweet
Jamal and Q haven’t been friends in two years, mainly because Jamal blames Q for the accident that killed his parents. But at a party Q jumps into the ocean to save someones life and Jamal jumps in after him unfortunately Q ends up dying. This isn’t the end for Q because he’s about to be reanimated with advanced health care technology. Now Jamal has a second chance to make things right and fix the friendship they once had.
Since the death of his parents Jamal just lives with his older Whit, he also has a girlfriend Amber, and he spends his time avoiding Q. After Q’s death Jamal learns that making things right are important and all he wants is to make things right with Q. First of all the reunion between these two was not a happy one, which is understandable considering the fact that Jamal hasn’t talked to Q in two years. Also Q’s mom does not want him to know that he was reanimated, which Jamal doesn’t agree with. I should also mention that Q doesn’t have much time before he dies again.
Jamal isn’t a perfect main character he’s still dealing with PTSD from what happened with his parents, he also makes a lot of mistakes. One thing about Jamal though is he’ll try his best to make things right. I really loved Q, we get his point of view at some point during the book but he always tries to look at the brighter side of things. With his time dwindling down everyone tries to spend as much time as they can with Q. My favorite thing about this book was how much each of the characters genuinely cared for and loved each other. I’m glad that Jamal and Q got a chance to reconnect and do things in life that made them happy. I usually get sad when characters die but with Q, I felt a peace mainly because he knew how he wanted to spend his final hours and he was surrounded by his loved ones. The greatest thing is that even though Q was gone his spirit was still with everyone and everyone still showed that same love for each other even though he was gone.
This was an incredible book. Even though most of us don’t get the chance to fix things with someone who died I’m glad that Jamal got to make things right with Q. I wish they had more time together. Early Departures reminds us that life is short and we should make the most of it and try to make things right even when it’s hard to do.
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