It’s the summer before senior year. Reid is in the thick of Scofield High’s in-crowd thanks to her best friend, Hattie, who has been her social oxygen since middle school. But summer is when Hattie goes to her family’s Maine island home. Instead of sitting inside for eight weeks, waiting for her to return, Reid and their friend, Sam, enter into a pact — to live it up, one party at a time.
Then, days before Hattie is due home, Reid finds out the shocking news that Hattie has died by suicide. Driven by a desperate need to understand what went wrong, Reid searches for answers. In doing so, she uncovers painful secrets about the person she thought she knew better than herself. And the truth will force Reid to reexamine everything. From debut author Cameron Kelly Rosenblum comes a stunning teen novel that tackles love, grief, and mental health as one girl must process her friend’s death and ultimately learn how to stand in her own light.
"The storyline bounces back and forth between past and present to fill in details of Reid and Hattie’s relationship, including all Hattie deliberately hid from Reid — and quite a lot that Reid hid from Hattie. Reid always understood that her role in Hattie’s life involved not demanding answers or intimacy. At the same time, Hattie was central to Reid’s life, and learning to navigate each day without her seems impossible.... The novel doesn’t glorify suicide or dwell on the details of Hattie’s death. Instead it explores loss, futility, honesty, and love, with a richness of prose and excellence of characterization rare in a first-time author." — Kirkus Reviews
Recommended Age | 15 and up |
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Author | Cameron Kelly Rosenblum |
ISBN | 0062932071 |
Publication Date | Jul 28, 2020 |
Publisher | Quill Tree Books |
Language | English |