Things I'm Seeing Without You by Peter Bognanni

🌟🌟🌗 out of 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Synopsis:
Seventeen-year-old Tess Fowler has just dropped out of high school. She can barely function after learning of Jonah’s death. Jonah, the boy she’d traded banter with over texts and heartfelt e-mails.

Jonah, the first boy she'd told she loved and the first boy to say it back.

Jonah, the boy whose suicide she never saw coming.

Tess continues to write to Jonah, as a way of processing her grief and confusion. But for now she finds solace in perhaps the unlikeliest of ways: by helping her father with his new alternative funeral business, where his biggest client is . . . a prized racehorse?

As Tess’s involvement in her father’s business grows, both find comfort in the clients they serve and in each other. But love, loss, and life are so much more complicated than Tess ever thought. Especially after she receives a message that turns her life upside down.

*I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review* 

I'm not sure about the way that the book began. It seemed fragmented to me because things weren't making as much sense as I would have liked. As the book continued things began coming together to form a complete picture. I enjoyed the unique voice of the main character Tess. She had a voice all her own and I liked hearing what she had to say. She proved to be a fairly realistic teenage character with the author achieving a balance between immaturity and wisdom beyond her years. I feel like the story lacked detail at times. I didn't feel like I fully understood why characters felt or acted in certain ways. I really liked how the author explored the funeral business and Tess's Father's unique take on celebrating the lives of those that have passed on. It made the book entertaining and allowed me to think about the reasoning behind funerals.
I appreciated the author's take on grieving the death of someone who committed suicide. The grieving process is slightly different in cases like this and the author communicates this very well in my opinion. He makes sure that readers understand that there are mixture of emotions associated with this mostly confusion. I appreciated the way that the book focuses on a need for answers as to why Jonah would take his own life and how it affects everyone that he leaves behind.