Michael Northrop

The pinkest thing I will ever post on my site…

I just finished How To Say Goodbye in Robot by Natalie Standiford. Before I started this book, I was pretty sure that robots said goodbye in one of two ways:

1) “Ah’ll be back.”
2) 01101010110

Now I know that is not the case. The truth is, sometimes robots are not really robots, and ghost are not really ghosts. In those rare cases, they don’t ever really say goodbye at all.

That may sound cryptic, and being human, I mean it to. Because I really think you should read this book. It is quirky and original and packs an emotional punch that really surprised me. It’s like when you think you’ve reached the bottom of the stairs but there’s really one more step. There was that little moment of disorientation when I realized how much the collection of misfits in this book affected me. Really, I think it’s the mix of the odd and the everyday, both in terms of the details and the characters, that creates such a poignant and effective novel.