Review: The Half-Orphan’s Handbook by Joan F. Smith

Hey, everyone! I hope you’re doing well. Today I have another review, this one for The Half-Orphan’s Handbook. I really enjoyed this, so let’s get into the review.

Title: The Half-Orphan’s Handbook
Author: Joan F. Smith
Genre: Contemporary, Realistic Fiction, Young Adult
Series: None
Page Count: 320

Synopsis: “For fans of John Green and Emily X.R. Pan, The Half-Orphan’s Handbook by Joan F. Smith is a coming-of-age story and an empathetic, authentic exploration of grief with a sharp sense of humor and a big heart.

It’s been three months since Lila lost her father to suicide. Since then, she’s learned to protect herself from pain by following two unbreakable rules:

1. The only people who can truly hurt you are the ones you love. Therefore, love no one.

2. Stay away from liars. Liars are the worst.

But when Lila’s mother sends her to a summer-long grief camp, it’s suddenly harder for Lila to follow these rules. Potential new friends and an unexpected crush threaten to drag her back into life for the first time since her dad’s death.

On top of everything, there’s more about what happened that Lila doesn’t know, and facing the truth about her family will be the hardest part of learning how a broken heart can love again.”

Content Warnings

grief, suicide, loss of loved one

The Half-Orphan’s Handbook is an incredible coming-of-age novel, exploring the effects of suicide and grief in a teenage girl’s life.

“That’s how caring got to you. While it pressed against your walls, it made you think it was beautiful, until it broke you, flooding your insides with destruction and hurt.”

I didn’t read this book only for the sake of reading it. And that’s because I’m a half-orphan as well. My experience wasn’t suicide, it was a two year long battle with cancer. For me, it’s been a little under two months. The differences in our experiences made me able to read the book and relate to Lila, but there was enough difference that I wasn’t completely with her.

Books about grief need to be presented in a certain way. A realistic one. And Joan F. Smith did it really well. Smith had a similar experience as Lila’s, so she was able to use her own emotions and feelings to write the book. Lila felt sadness towards her father’s death, but also anger and shame. She didn’t understand the reasoning for why her dad decided to leave.

“The moment you realize you don’t have control over what anyone else does is the moment you find yourself comfortable with the world.”

The romance was way too rushed. I think Noah was an important character and that he made an influence on Lila, but their relationship was taken too far and too fast. They only knew each other for a few weeks. Romance is a major part in a teenager’s life, but I think it would’ve been better if the story didn’t focus so much on that aspect. Not every YA book needs to have a major subplot of romance in it.

I love the relationships that Lila makes. And the fact that this book really focused on those relationships. Winnie and Madison were great friends, as was Deese. Deese and Lila’s relationship was really nice. They bonded over what they loved to do. Lila grows so much over the course of the story; at the beginning, she’s mad and doesn’t understand what made her dad kill himself and leave her family. But then, as the summer passes by at the grief camp, she comes to accept her father’s decision.

“You’re going to love people. They’re going to let you down. If they didn’t, then maybe you wouldn’t know how much you valued them in the first place.”

I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Half-Orphan’s Handbook. It was well written and the grief aspects were handled really well.

My Rating: 4/5 dragons

Have you read The Half-Orphan’s Handbook? Is it on your TBR?
Chat with me in the comments below!