I received a copy of this through onlinebookclub.org. It is a short novel about 5 high school kids who all have their lives changed in one day. Our main main girl is Addison and her story is told at the beginning of every chapter in the form of diary entries. She is the girl who tried to commit suicide and she is on her way back to school after her attempt. She is worrying about how every one will see her or pay attention to her and talk about her behind her back.
Our next character is Booker who is a guy who is trying to come to terms with his cousin/best friend's cancer disagnosis. He was also friends with Addison and feels that Addison commited to ultimate betrayal by trying to kill her self and he is blaming his self.
Next we meet Celia who has the most heart wrenching story of all and the character I feel got done dirty by the end of the story because even though she got out of a terrible situation, she didn't get to be part of the friend group, but she was still impacted by Addison who ended up giving her her hoodie to wear to replace the piece of clothing that started the chain of events for Celia in the first place.
The last two characters that we follow are Avery and Damion. Avery is dealing with a lot of family issues and judgement because her brother just got thrown in jail for drug possession. Her mother had passed away a couple years ago and her father has been on a downward spiral. She meets two new people who change her family even more and ultimately her dad.
Damion is a famous comedy animator on Youtube. He is dealing with his own family drama which hit very close to home with me. His mother has Alzheimers and he doesn't let anyone know at school. He ends up telling Avery because he is bring cyber bullied and it eventually turns threatening. The sad thing is that made me burst into tears is that his mother doesn't remember his name.
Story time: my husband was raised by his grandmother and over the years she had been repeating things and forgetting that she had already told us important things. At the end of 2021, my husband's aunt told us that grandma had moved in with her because she started to wander and was starting to forget who her son in law and grand daughters were. The sad thing is that when my husband heard that, he drove three hours with my daughters to go be with her and she did not remember them. She would not hug my husband, and kind of looked frightened. My daughters helped her play some memory games on her tablet, but she still doesn't remember them.
I ended up giving this a 4 out of 5 stars. I enjoyed the pacing and format. The characters all held my attention. I just wish that we would have gotten more of Celia's story and a interaction with her dad when he came and got her.
