The Last Wish of Sasha Cade

Raquel and her best friend Sasha have spent their lives together in their small Texas town and they are inseparable BFFs. Things take an unforeseen turn for the two friends when Sasha is diagnosed with lymphoma and the teenagers are forced to deal with terminal cancer and young lives cut too short. Raquel supports her friend during her grueling illness and is by her side on a sleepover in Sasha’s home when she takes her last breath. While Sasha was adored by her adoptive parents and her high school classmates, and all are reeling from her death, Raquel soon realizes that she won’t find support from her boyfriend Zack who just wants her to move on. Sasha had never liked Zack, and Raquel finally ends the relationship after Sasha’s death finding solace in a new job at Izzy’s, the local flower shop.

Raquel’s, or Rocki as her best friend liked to call her, world is once again upended when she receives a card in the mail instructing her to go to the cemetery and wait by Sasha’s grave. Once there, Raquel meet’s Elijah, Sasha’s long lost older brother. Elijah shares the same piercing eyes as his sister but that was all they shared. Elijah wasn’t adopted as a child and spent his life in a group home after he and Sasha were given up by their addicted parents. While Sasha and Elijah had reconnected online just before her death, they had never met in person, and Sasha had chosen not to reveal her diagnosis to her brother. Sasha communicates to the pair from beyond the grave via letters, emails and videos mailed and scheduled to send electronically after her death, each one giving instructions on an activity to be completed or a place to visit, scavenger hunt style. The only rules for the scavenger hunt are that Sasha’s adoptive parents, the Cades, must not know about the communications or about Elijah, and that Raquel and Elijah must do everything together.

Sasha sends her brother and her best friend on outings to a concert by her favourite band, Zombie Radio, to her family’s boat, to significant locales in her town, to view the girls’ favourite movies, and to an adventure lodge where she and Raquel spent time as children. Forced to spend time together, Raquel quickly falls for Elijah, and the details of his tough childhood and current alliance with a drug smuggler slowly unfurl. Raquel picks up where Sasha left off, helping Elijah pursue higher education, and she reveals Elijah’s identity to Sasha’s parents in order to get him out of a legal bind and help him fund his education. The pair eventually declare their love for each other, Elijah moves in with Sasha’s parents, and he and Raquel complete their post-secondary education.

The Last Wish of Sasha Cade risks comparisons to Jay Asher’s controversial mega hit Thirteen Reasons Why with its “beyond the grave” communication and scavenger hunt style plot. However, unlike Asher’s fast-paced groundbreaking story of teen suicide and revenge, The Last Wish of Sasha Cade is a predictable teen romance that falls flat in many places. While Sasha and Elijah are fleshed out characters and the Cades feature prominently, Raquel, the narrator, is very one-dimensional, and her parents and family life are barely mentioned. Readers may struggle with how quickly and how hard Raquel falls for the somewhat boring and distant Elijah, as well as the fact that Raquel was with her best friend when she died and yet does not seem to suffer from any form of PTSD or trauma from the experience. The timeliness and accuracy of the communications Sasha arranged for after her death are impressive yet readers are not made privy to the details of how they occurred. The revelation of the fact that the Cades were not willing to help young Elijah, as they did know of his existence all along, is surprising and out of character for the near perfect parents. Accepting readers in search of a predictable teen romance will be satisfied with Young’s story, but those in need of stronger characters, deeper meaning and an interesting plot may be disappointed.