Erin Stewart

Lily is a model high school student and athlete with dreams of heading to Berkeley for college. But she also has a lot of secrets, like the fact that her sister isn’t actually off at university but in an institution after a suicide attempt, and that Lily herself struggles with anxiety and OCD-type symptoms. When the new boy reveals that he knows Lily’s sister from the hospital, Lily worries that everyone will find out all her secrets, but as the two grow closer she needs to decide what her priorities are.

I read this one because it won a Schneider Award, and it sure reads like it was written solely with that goal in mind. A story about a teen struggling to make it through everyday situations while dealing with mental illness is one thing and I’m all for positive representations of such things in literature, especially YA lit, but to have three sisters all have some form of mental illness, *plus* the love interest, and then to have the main character constantly refer to her struggles with anxiety and OCD to the point that it overwhelms what little plot there was in the first place is just too much.… (mais)

Such a thought-provoking book. We meet Ava Lee, who is a burns survivor but with significant scars on her face and body, in the fire, she lost her parents and now living with her aunt and uncle. It is now time to return to school, how will the other students be with her?
We follow Ava through her struggles and her achievements, friendship and self-acceptance it is heartbreaking at times, I felt the pull and was almost in tears reading some of it.
Erin Stewart did an amazing job writing this, it flowed well and I would recommend it… (mais)