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Ren died at 17, not quite making her 18th birthday and her Father gets a memorial bench in her name.

The whole book is from Ren's view as a bench. The same scenery, the same memorial benches beside her, the passing dog walkers, joggers, drunks.

As Ren begins to look back at her life, we start to understand what happened the day of her death and as her family and friends visit her bench, we get snippets of what's happened since.

Available on KU

Hazell definitely takes a different vantage point for a narrator, but is a risk that doesn't quite pay off. Although unique in concept, it is the story itself that feels constrained by the bench, the choppy flashbacks, and by the main character herself. Her relationship with Gabriel sounds incredibly needy and I honestly feel that this is a disservice to young girls when the protagonist's happiness seems to hinge on a boy.