This book is worth reading, so go read it, but stop reading reviews because they'll probably spoil something. Don't read the description; it'll spoil something. (Those author comparisons… come on, whoever did jacket copy!) If you like YA, go read it.
 
Okay, that being said, now I will talk about this book in ambiguous terms that jump around the major event that happens a third of the way or so through. No apologies if you're intelligent enough to guess what happens.

So this ends up being a premise I've totally thought about in a different fashion--the idea of who is important to you, but how many other people even know that you're important to them? Who has the right to grieve? Who has the agency to speak after certain events? (I told you there'd be spoilers. There's no way to do this.)
 
Matt is lovely and so very real and such a great boy character! Am I the only one who feels like boy characters are often one-dimensional in YA lit? I loved the way he interacted with all of his friends and especially with Tabby, and I loved the way that he dealt with the circumstances and lashed out and was vulnerable and real.
 
While a lot more YA deals with this than proportionally is realistic, I felt like I could see this community reacting and I could see the events playing out. From Matt's parents and family to the way he plays basketball and looks up to his teammates, I felt like Reck had really delved into the personality of every character.
 
This is so much better than All the Bright Places, and I highly recommend it for those who love tragic YA romances.
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. ( )

Tabby grew up alongside Matt. She's part of the family. Somewhere along the line Matt's feelings for her change and he's in love with her. As they start high school, Tabby connects with a senior and friendship turns to dating. Matt carries around some anger about ti, but he knows he wants to keep Tabby's friendship. Tragedy strikes and Matt's whole world is turned upside down as he drowns in and tries to find a way out of his grief. ( )

this was definitely more of a book dealing with mourning than “the girl next door” (as the title suggests). the language was a bit cringey at times, but this book was still good! :) ( )

Sometimes books don't turn out the way you want them to be. Same goes for life sometimes. Matt has grown up with Tabby, the girl from across the road who has spent every Christmas, weekend with his family as she is the only child of a single dad who works long hours. They've gone to kinder and then primary and middle school together,and she is around so often that Matt's 4 year old younger brother Murray thinks Tabby is his sister. So what happens when Matt falls hopelessly in love with Tabby but she is in love with a Year 12 boy called Branson. In a movie, she would realize that Branson is not the guy for her, Matt is, only Matt knows he actually is - Branson's one of the good guys. Matt's simmering jealously unfortunately gets in the way of their friendship, and when Tabby one day comes over to ask Matt's advice about Branson, he explodes saying angrily, "Don't you have any girlfriends you can talk with this stuff about?!"
Tabby, heartbroken at this break in their friendship, decides to give Matt the cold shoulder completely. What has Matt done?

OMG. This book takes such an unexpected turn of events in the middle that I gasped out loud when I read it. I don't want to spoil it but suffice to say that my first sentence rings true. I LOVED the portrayal of the older people in this book - the quirky teachers especially the English one ( did the author base it on himself?) and their Friday poetry club sessions , the coach and Matt's grandfather. ( His story made me cry.)
The only issue I have with this book is that Reck uses the F word constantly. Yes, it provides authenticity to the workings of a teenage boy's mind but it gets a bit repetitive and boring to the reader - surely there are other ways to curse?
Regardless of that fact, I loved this novel, which I think fans of John Green works will really like. ( )

It took me a bit to get through this book because it never grabbed me. The first part of the book, where Matthew is lusting over Tabby, his neighbor seemed a little trite and wasn't really going anywhere for me. However, about 2/3 of the way in, it picked up and was very interesting. I loved the last third of the book, and raised the rating from 2 stars to 3. ( )