Representation: Black characters
Trigger warnings: Death of a friend from a heart attack and another person in the past mentioned, grief and loss depiction
Score: Seven out of ten.

I did not know of The Order of Things by Kaija Langley until a few days ago when I briefly discovered it circling my recommendations. It was hard to get it as no library had this one physically but one had it in eBook form, so I picked it up. The blurb made it seem heartbreaking, and when I closed the final page, it delivered.

It starts with April and Zee, a violin player, living as friends and even going to the same school. April pursues playing the drums after the opening pages. As April keeps working on that, Zee suffers from some close calls, until he dies from a sudden cardiac arrest, darkening the mood from there. April deals with the situation by grieving over the loss of Zee and trying her best to move on, but April keeps thinking about Zee when she tries to live her typical life, and that's where the narrative takes a turn. April decides to work as a mailer since Zee's father took a break after losing his son. He never moves on in the end as he leaves April behind, much to my dismay. The writing style is alright--it's enough to keep the story going but it's more like spaced out prose than real poetry. Inserting more poetic devices or switching to prose would be an improvement. The characters are likable and Langley wrote April well as she was flawed (adding depth) but still an enjoyable character to read, yet I didn't relate to the characters, but it's most likely that I hadn't lived through this exact experience. The plot is simple as it's nothing but another work of fiction about grief. I've read a lot of those. Few are in verse like this one like Call Me Adnan. That makes it stand out. The pacing is engaging, albeit a little slow as Langley takes time developing the characters and the conclusion is bittersweet. ( )

11-year-old April has been best friends with Zee since they were born only a month apart. They live across the hallway from each other in their apartment building and together, along with April’s mom, and Papa Zee - the four are a family. This school year though, things are changing. Zee has gotten into the new charter school specializing in music for his violin and April is staying behind at their old school.

But, when tragedy strikes and Zee passes away, April is forced to relearn what it means to continue after losing everything she once knew.

I went into this quite blindly. I’m a sucker for novel-in-verse books, especially middle grade because they seem all the more powerful to me for some reason. I saw this one on NetGalley and immediately requested to read it without much else. That being said, after reading it, I fully read the description and I do think it needs to be changed up - it gives away 95% of the book. When I recommend this, I’m going to try and suggest they not read the description to not give anything away.

Besides the description being too much, I’m still going to be recommending this book to many others. It was beautiful and full of representation. This story talks about ways people deal with the pain of losing someone and what it means to speak up at the right time. This is all done in a way that, though a bit simplified for middle grade, it will still require some tissues.

*Thank you Nancy Paulsen Books and NetGalley for an advance digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review ( )