Sasha Lauren

Final Lullaby was a very personal story for me. I have experienced several family members including my late husband that faced terminal illnesses. Most of them did get help in their last months with Hospice which I support fully but when it came to my husbands illness it was not so clear a choice. None of his Dr's ever approached the subject of death and that we should be think about what end of life choices we might want to make. The Dr. in the ICU continued to encourage dialysis even after he was found to have sepsis. His death was painful and difficult. I feel they just wanted to keep the bed filled. His last 6 weeks were torture for him. It's been 3 years and I'm still angry that no one was honest with us. They just kept giving us false hope when clearly he was failing rapidly over his last 6 months of life. I wish I had consulted Hospice to get him with them so his last days would have been more comfortable.
The dispondent callers also resonated with me because I have felt the hopelessness over the last 4 years. Ms. Lauren approched several timely and sensative subjects without making her book dark or depressing. This would make a great bookclub pick. There is a lot of subjects here to keep a discussion going for a long evening. Thank you Black Rose Writing and LibraryThings Early Reviewers for the opportunity to read this thought provoking book.… (more)

This story of people not only dealing with the unfairness of life but also fighting against preventable tragedies caused by medical malpractice and lack of patient protections, has many heartwrenching moments, but also many heartwarming ones.
I received Final Lullaby as an Early Reviewer. It's a story of life's ups and downs told in the first-person by a young woman named Angela who is happily single and independent until she meets her soulmate Tucker. Angela, after her best friend in high school suffers from incurable cancer, believes strongly in the right-to-die movement for people with terminal illnesses or unsustainable pain levels, but she is also a volunteer counselor for the local suicide prevention hotline.
Not a fault of the book itself, but I thought the description of the book given by the publisher is kind of a spoiler, as it really describes the last third of the book, which the first two-thirds of the book lead up to, so the pacing of the book as a whole wasn't exactly what I expected from the description of the book:
"Angela Alexander, a New England bookshop owner and support talk-line volunteer, is dedicated to listening to people without her own filter getting in the way. Though her life is full and satisfying, she faces the ultimate dilemma after her husband Tucker - an exuberant bird photographer and blues musician - is harmed by medical malpractice during a routine hernia repair. Left in intractable pain, he struggles to focus on any shred of quality of life. When Tucker expresses the desire to end his life before he loses full autonomy, Angela has to decide to support him in that decision, or not."… (more)

Sasha Lauren covered such an incredibly impactful matter with grace, delicacy and such punch, but for me, I think that punch came in a little too late. The beginning and first half of the book were somewhat dry, and really dragged on for me, but things picked up towards the back, which is where Lauren begins to show how amazingly beautiful her craft of words can be. Otherwise, though, the conversations felt a little forced, but it's more of a personal issue than the author's.

I really liked how each character, however minor, got their own little ending which really brings out how much the author has invested into this story-world. Instead of being characters in only Angela's story, she shows how each of them in themselves is a whole new unexplored tale. Overall, it's a lovely and so incredibly meaningful story that warns of medical malpractice and explores the much-debated territory of having the right to die. It was beautiful.… (more)