Read about the other entries on the list.How to Say Goodbye in Robot, by Natalie Standiford
When Bea meets Jonah, the two withdrawn kids manage to see through each other’s robotic exteriors, connecting over both the fronts they put up to survive the day—Bea’s the lonely daughter of an itinerant professor father and a depressed mother, Jonah’s grieving a tragic loss—and over their eccentric obsession with late-night call-in radio. The arc of their slow-blooming relationship is as satisfying and revelatory as any love story, a meeting of minds that occurs on a beautifully rendered fringe. When a dark discovery about his family sends Jonah into a tailspin, Bea attempts to save him—but, like Crutcher’s Eric [in Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes], discovers the power of friendship has its limits.
--Marshal Zeringue
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