Starred Review for Kirkus Reviews

After one life-changing night with her secret crush Andy Cooper, Frenchie Garcia, a cigarette-smoking artist who quotes Dickinson and hangs out in a cemetery, is haunted. Frenchie is in the limbo of what-comes-next. She's finished high school but has been rejected by art school. She is sullen and anxious and can't seem to get her life moving. Gradually, what happened that night with Andy and its lingering impact on Frenchie are revealed. It was the same night that Andy ended his own life. No one even knows that she liked Andy, let alone about the time they spent together, so Frenchie keeps her guilt and confusion to herself. When her internal rage finally boils over, she embarks upon an all-night trek with Colin, a boy she barely knows, re-creating every step of her spontaneous adventure with Andy and desperately searching for whatever she must have missed. Sanchez's expertly crafted narrative moves seamlessly between "that night" and now, pulling readers into Frenchie's anger and pain without straying into clichés of teen angst. Frenchie's struggle to identify and process her own emotions rings out as authentic and honest. There are no easy answers for Frenchie Garcia as she attempts to recover from the tragedy of suicide. An exceptionally well-written journey to make sense of the senseless. (Fiction. 14 & up)

ALA Booklist

Francesca "Frenchie" Garcia lives on a block that dead-ends into a cemetery, which makes bearing witness to funeral processions a neighborhood pastime. Although she patterns her thoughts after Emily Dickinson's poetry, Frenchie's daily paradox balances between the blinding light and heat of an Orlando summer and the paralyzing doom and gloom of a death obsession. Frenchie is trying to make sense of the suicide of her high-school crush, Andy, who chose to spend his last night with her. In addition, her passion for art is derailed after rejection from the art school of her dreams, and her childhood friends are following the postgraduation natural order of growing up and out. With well-paced revelations, Sanchez gradually strengthens Frenchie's resolve to heal and move forward, ultimately letting her friend Colin tenderly help her retrace the events leading up to Andy's death. Frenchie genuinely wants the funeral in her brain to stop, and the author wittingly ensures that the reader wants nothing less for her.

Horn Book (Tue Apr 01 00:00:00 CDT 2014)

Frenchie spends "one cool night" with her crush, Andy. They part ways, and it's the last time she sees him alive. Months later, in an attempt to find meaning in his suicide, Frenchie retraces the steps of the last night they spent together. Sanchez deftly constructs a dreamy narrative that captures the lingering repercussions of suicide.

Kirkus Reviews (Fri Oct 04 00:00:00 CDT 2024)

After one life-changing night with her secret crush Andy Cooper, Frenchie Garcia, a cigarette-smoking artist who quotes Dickinson and hangs out in a cemetery, is haunted. Frenchie is in the limbo of what-comes-next. She's finished high school but has been rejected by art school. She is sullen and anxious and can't seem to get her life moving. Gradually, what happened that night with Andy and its lingering impact on Frenchie are revealed. It was the same night that Andy ended his own life. No one even knows that she liked Andy, let alone about the time they spent together, so Frenchie keeps her guilt and confusion to herself. When her internal rage finally boils over, she embarks upon an all-night trek with Colin, a boy she barely knows, re-creating every step of her spontaneous adventure with Andy and desperately searching for whatever she must have missed. Sanchez's expertly crafted narrative moves seamlessly between "that night" and now, pulling readers into Frenchie's anger and pain without straying into clichés of teen angst. Frenchie's struggle to identify and process her own emotions rings out as authentic and honest. There are no easy answers for Frenchie Garcia as she attempts to recover from the tragedy of suicide. An exceptionally well-written journey to make sense of the senseless. (Fiction. 14 & up)

School Library Journal (Tue Oct 01 00:00:00 CDT 2013)

Gr 9 Up-Seventeen-year-old Frenchie is surprised when Andy Cooper asks her out-she has had a crush on him for years, but he barely acknowledges her. On top of that, it is a strange date as they trek to various places that seem to be important to him. When Frenchie finds out the next morning that he has committed suicide, she wonders why he chose to spend his last night alive with her. A bit of a loner, Frenchie discovers the grave of Emily Dickinson and pretends that the woman is the famous poet and makes her her best friend and confidante. After all, the grave is just down the street from where Frenchie lives in Orlando, Florida, convenient for get-togethers and gab fests. Grieving over Andy's death, Frenchie must discover why he thought he had to kill himself. She enlists Colin, a boy she met at a club, to help her retrace their steps on Andy's last night. Despite its dark topic and the depths of Frenchie's sorrow, there is an undercurrent of humor in her observations and her conversations with Em, which keeps the novel from becoming overwhelmingly a book about death and grief. There are also the realistic aspects of teen angst as Frenchie wonders why Joel, her best friend for almost forever, has a new girlfriend, someone Frenchie does not like at all. This is a fast, well-written read with a satisfactory though not necessarily happy ending and a protagonist to remember-a survivor and person of action. A solid choice that is accessible even for reluctant readers. Janet Hilbun, Texas Women's University, Denton, TX