Review: The Truth About Letting Go by Leigh T. Moore

Pub. Date: February 18^th 2013

Publisher: All Night Reads

Ebook

276 pages

Moore has created a realistic and beautifully crafted story about grief, and the way people work through loss. Full of (mostly) likeable characters, family conflict, and high school drama that we can all relate to, The Truth About Letting Go pulls at the heartstrings and doesn’t let go, even when you’re done reading.

Ashley Lockett’s father has just died from a short, severe, battle with cancer. He seemed perfectly healthy one day, then gone six months later. Ashley is struggling to understand how cancer could have happened to her family, and questioning everything she believed in before. Good-boy Jordan represents everything Ashley would have wanted before her father’s death. He is passionate about his faith, and confident that through faith and prayer Ashley will be able to heal, but the ‘new’ Ashley doesn’t agree. Bad-boy Colt represents Ashley’s newfound need to change. With Colt, Ashley is able to live dangerously. The grief and intense pressure she feels lessens when he pushes her out of her comfort zone, and distract her thoughts.

The thing I appreciated about this novel the most was the soul, and the purpose. While there was a love triangle element, family conflict and friendship conflict, the focus is always on Ashley’s struggle to

manage her grief. Her grief and her confusion over her feelings are intense, and learning how to handle these things is really important. For me, Leigh T. Moore has really captured and represented grief and loss in such an honest, relatable and beautiful way, despite it being such a difficult subject.

The people Ashley surrounds herself with are huge influences on how she handles her grief. My favorite relationships were not the romantic ones (though I loved Jordan’s character), but those with the more secondary characters. Ashley’s brother handles his grief in such a different way from Ashley, but they have such a close relationship and they are able to lean on each other, even when their coping mechanisms are so different. Charlotte (one of the seemingly unpopular ‘fat’ kids) I found to be a really interesting character, because their friendship helps both girls figure out who they are and who they want to be, while breaking down clique barriers in their high school. Charlotte comes into Ashley’s life at the right time, and they find in each other someone to who they can count on to be supportive.

Overall I really like this novel. I connected with Ashley’s struggle even if I have never lost a parent. At times I found Ashley’s rebellions to be slightly melodramatic and out of character, and I also wasn’t the biggest fan of Colt’s character, but through the rebellions I think Moore has really represented how the grieving process can be irrational, painful, and most significantly, individual. This book definitely has a strong focus on Christian beliefs, so if that’s not your thing, it’s probably not for you. But if you love contemporary fiction, romances, or drama novels, definitely give this one a read.

Rating 9/10

Their is a companion novel to The Truth About Letting Go, called The Truth About Faking, which takes place in the same town as Ashley's story, but follows a different set of character. You can read the books in any order. The Truth About Faking is available now!

Click here for my review of Book 1 in Moore's Dragonfly series!

** I received a copy of this novel from the publisher to read and honestly review. I was in no way compensated.