2020
WISE Score
Amazon
A gut-punch of a story about a girl losing her mom and finding out that the foster system is exactly as messy as you've heard.
4.6
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This isn't a beach read or a 'fun' weekend book. It’s a sit-in-your-room-and-cry-it-out experience. Glasgow doesn't pull punches, and that's why teens love her—she respects their ability to handle the truth about how hard life can get.
If your teen is into high-emotion contemporary fiction like 'All the Bright Places' or 'Girl in Pieces,' this is a top-tier recommendation. It’s gritty, it’s sad, and it’s very much grounded in the 2020s reality of mental health awareness.
Best for 14 and up. It’s a heavy lift emotionally, and while younger teens could read the words, the weight of the themes—suicide, foster care, and profound isolation—requires a level of maturity to process.
It’s emotionally raw and honest about the messiness of grief. While it's not 'sunny,' it models the hard work of resilience and finding connection in the middle of a total life collapse.
As contemporary fiction, it doesn't build new worlds, but it uses the 'darkness' as a visceral, creative metaphor for depression and loss that resonates deeply with teen readers.
It deals with heavy triggers: sudden parental death, the foster care system, and mentions of suicide. Safe for the intended teen audience, but would be a massive emotional shock for a younger child.
This is a masterclass in empathy. It gives a voice to kids in the foster system and provides a roadmap for navigating overwhelming loss without offering easy, fake answers.
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