Laura Nowlin published her book If He Had Been With Me on November 1st, 2019. Over time people have been asking for more of the story from Finn’s point of view and she promised there would not be another book. On February 6th, 2024, she released the sequel, If Only I Had Told Her. This novel includes three points of view, Finn, Jack, and Autumn.
There is a content warning after the author’s note explaining that this book includes death, depression, suicide, and pregnancy. It also includes the suicide and crisis lifeline under the warnings. In her acknowledgments, she writes about her son, Percy, “He recently asked me if, after the book was done, I’d ever have to do this again. I’m sorry sweetheart, but I am planning on doing this again.”
It was nice to see more insight on Finn’s side of things. Throughout his point of view, we get a deeper understanding of what he meant when his responses were vague in If He Had Been With Me. His death is, again, not explained during his side of the novel.
When it came to Jack’s side it is told how he died. Along with that it shows the grieving prosses he went through, and he ends up finding comfort, in someone he originally never thought he would have gotten along with, because of a similar experience.
Autumn, being pregnant with Finn’s baby, struggles with handling his death and trying to prosses that there is a baby inside her. Both her and Finn’s mom help Autumn get what she needs to raise the baby. She ends up meeting and reuniting with people who are helping her get through this.
We even get to see a little character development with Sylvie. We get to see a little on her past and why she behaves the way she does, and now she is maturing to the sense she knows she can’t change anything with what happened with Finn or between Finn and Autumn.
For me, I really thought Finn’s death was going to be the hard part to read. I have never cried over a book, but this one was close to changing that. The emotions were so real and the way his death was handled by friends and family was absolutely heart breaking. As much as I’m unsure how this story will end, I hope there is a third book. Maybe this time seen from Sylvie’s side and more of Autumn and the baby’s story.
