Every Time You Go Away

By: Abigail Johnson

Narrated by: Ferdelle Capistrano, Graham Halstead

Perfect for fans of Jennifer Niven, Abigail Johnson draws a searing and lyrical portrait of grief, forgiveness, and the kind of love that blooms in the aftermath.

Eight years ago, Ethan and Rebecca met, two troublemaking kids sharing secrets and first kisses in a tree house, until Ethan’s mom returned to take him away. Each and every visit, his only goodbye was a flower on Rebecca’s windowsill.

Four years ago, Ethan left for the last time to take care of his mother, who has struggled with addiction his whole life.

Two years ago, Rebecca was in a car accident that killed her father. She’s been learning to navigate life as a wheelchair user ever since.

Now, they discover if their hardships have torn them apart…or will bring them closer than ever.

©2023 Abigail Johnson (P)2023 Harlequin Enterprises, Limited

Thoughtful

4.5 STARS

Rebecca lives next door to Ethan’s grandparents. The two become friends as kids when his mom drops him off to get clean. As quickly as he arrives he disappears, returning at various intervals without their childhoods. Now seventeen, Ethan is back after a four year absence, angry and resentful. Rebecca, partially paralyzed from an accident that killed her father carries even more scars on the inside. The two emotionally damaged teens try to regain their friendship and maybe more in EVERY TIME YOU GO AWAY.

I enjoy Abigail Johnson’s writing style, the characters she creates and her storytelling. Though the characters are now seventeen, EVERY TIME YOU GO AWAY will appeal more toward older middle grade and younger young adult readers as it lacks some of the grittiness and harsher realities of substance abuse older readers would expect.

Thinking of my clients whose parents abused substances, I can’t imagine any would still have hope or try to locate a parent who left rehab for the umpteenth time when there has never been a period of sustained recovery. By the time they’re seventeen, they’re jaded to the unkept promises and while they’re often parentified and blame themselves, they also lack hope that *this time* will be different.

My favorite character was John, Rebecca’s future stepfather. I love how he tried to show Rebecca that her mom demonstrated love in different ways than she did. I could see how her mom’s coldness felt like a lack of love to Rebecca and it made me think of people in my life who were less demonstrative, showing love in deeds rather than words like her mom. This is a great message for young people depicted through the actions of characters, something I wish I had read as a young person.

In the preface Abigail Johnson says she never thought she’d write a paraplegic character and that while Rebecca’s story is not hers and Rebecca is not Johnson, Rebecca couldn’t have been written by an able-bodied person. The experience of someone who’s had to navigate spaces that don’t accommodate wheelchairs, so many places like doors, tables, bathrooms, door handles I’d never considered, could only be told authentically by someone who knows from experience. When I was in college in the early 1980s I worked retail. A customer in a wheelchair complained because the clothing racks were too close together and she couldn’t get through or even shop. It was Christmas time, we jammed as much merchandise as we could into our department. I figured it shouldn’t matter because we rarely had customers in wheelchairs. This was before the Americans with Disabilities Act and not long after Handicapped Parking, as it was then called, be more common. I don’t think I realized until reading EVERY TIME YOU GO AWAY how awful my thoughts about the customer’s very justified concern were. I share this in my review to illustrate the importance of Johnson writing a character like Rebecca are. Representation matters and the manner in which Johnson shows Rebecca’s daily life obstacles are less about her paralysis and more about inadequate accommodations by people who probably thought like I did in the 1980s or not at all because they never had to.

I can’t read the title EVERY TIME YOU GO AWAY without the song ringing in my head. This important book should be in every middle and high school classroom and library.

Friendship to slow burn

I absolutely love this story. I love the fact that it represents a main character with a physical disability and the slow burn relationship. This book could be a standalone however; I want a sequel! *also check for trigger warnings before reading/listening

This was a really good book

I liked how relatable it was with the different characters especially the guy character and his relationship with his mom.