Famous Last Words by Jennifer Salvato Doktorski

I easily identified with the main character of Famous Last Words, Sam. This summer, she's breaking rules, keeping secrets, and learning, little by little, that a summer of writing obituaries might just teach her how to live. And Sam, usually reserved and shy, is finding her niche and her previously small social circle is expanding. There's no lazing around the pool with her best friend Shelby, who just doesn't seem to understand why Sam works so much and has no interest in their usual summer activities. This summer is the beginning of something different for Sam. The newspaper office is filled with quirky characters, from Harry, her armadillo-loving boss, to Tony, known as Coma Boy to the rest of the newspaper staff and summer crush to Sam. Among her other 'intern scum' duties, Sam shares obituary duty with fellow intern AJ, a sarcastic college intern.

The novel follows 16-year old Sam, a summer intern at a local newspaper, the Herald Tribune. Jennifer Salvato Doktorski's young adult novel Famous Last Words is one of those novels that makes you suddenly laugh aloud in a quiet room and leaves you with a warm, satisfied feeling upon finishing. The book isn’t particularly deep, but it’s light, fun nature will please many readers. There is some mention of underage drinking, but the main character doesn’t like to drink and this fact is repeatedly mentioned. She still does deal with some teenage problems, like how to balance her job with spending time with her best friend, her parents not wanting her to work so much, and how to react to boys. While there is some time spent with friends and going to parties or her interaction with her family, the majority of Sam’s life readers learn about is working at the paper. Unlike a lot of other YA novels, this romantic comedy book focuses mainly on Sam’s job. By spending her time writing obituaries, Sam learns what it means to live. Sam learns to do some investigative research on her own to learn about what the mayor is hiding while she’s dealing with how she feels about some of the boys at the paper and learning why obituary writing is more important than she originally thought. Although her best friend wants Sam to be spending her time going to parties and beaches, Sam discovers that she prefers to spend time with the people at the paper, especially another intern, AJ, and Michael, whose story on the mayor stirs her curiosity. Samantha D’angelo thinks about death quite a lot, but it’s mostly because her summer job is writing obituaries at her local newspaper. This review originally published at The Children's Book and Media Review

Famous Last Words by Jennifer Salvato Doktorski