Sarah Welch

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The Art of Breaking Things

Review by Sarah Welch

Skye may be known as the school slut, but she isn’t worried about her reputation. Instead, she’s focused on partying with her friends, winning the scholarship to her top-choice art school and getting far away from her hometown. But when her mother brings a former boyfriend, Dan, back into their lives, that plan starts to crumble. Last time Dan was in the picture, he hurt Skye in a way she couldn’t even articulate. And now, torn between leaving home to pursue her dreams and staying to protect her little sister, Skye has to face a truth she’s spent years trying to bury.

Laura Sibson’s debut novel is a total knockout. The Art of Breaking Things tackles sexual assault with all the weight and nuance it deserves and none of the sugarcoating or brushing off it so often gets. Sibson wraps that discussion into a novel whose characters—from Skye and her friends to her little sister and the adults in their lives—are rendered with so much empathy that we can’t help but feel like they’re our friends, too. Sibson’s specificity and her deft prose make readers participants, not just witnesses, as Skye hits rock bottom before pulling herself back up with the help of her friends and her art.

A powerful novel about consent, creativity and the importance of trust (in yourself as much as anyone else), The Art of Breaking Things is a must-read for anyone who’s felt like she had to handle her trauma alone.

Skye may be known as the school slut, but she isn’t worried about her reputation. Instead, she’s focused on partying with her friends, winning the scholarship to her top-choice art school and getting far away from her hometown. But when her mother brings a former boyfriend, Dan, back into their lives, that plan starts to crumble. Last time Dan was in the picture, he hurt Skye in a way she couldn’t even articulate. And now, torn between leaving home to pursue her dreams and staying to protect her little sister, Skye has to face a truth she’s spent years trying to bury.

YA FictionYA

The Rest of the Story

Review by Sarah Welch

What better way to start the summer than with a new Sarah Dessen novel? In the tradition of her previous bestselling novels like This Lullaby and Once and for All, The Rest of the Story captures a young woman’s first big steps on her journey to self-reliance, reconnection and first love.

Emma Saylor lost her mom to addiction at a young age, and she hasn’t seen or spoken to anyone in her mother’s family for as long as she can remember. But when her summer plans fall through, Emma’s last-minute decision to return to North Lake to visit her maternal family propels her into a summer of discovery—not only about her mother, but about herself.

As always, Dessen’s vividly defined characters—with the sprawling cast of secondary characters adding as much complexity and depth to the story as Emma herself—will feel as familiar to readers as their own friends and family. But the real strength of The Rest of the Story is the deft way Dessen handles the tough subjects of addiction, grief, anxiety and class, unpacking these topics with nuance and a gentle hand.

While her latest novel brings us to a new fictional beach town, Dessen has scattered an Easter egg or two for avid fans throughout the book. But The Rest of the Story stands apart as a perfect summer read. It’s lighthearted, poignant and sure to give readers all the feels.

The Rest of the Story stands apart as a perfect summer read. It’s lighthearted and poignant and sure to give readers all the feels.

YA FictionYA

If I’m Being Honest

Review by Sarah Welch

In their latest novel, If I’m Being Honest, Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka (Always Never Yours) bring The Taming of the Shrew (and, with it, Ten Things I Hate About You) into present-day context as high school senior Cameron Bright grapples with what it means to change yourself in order to please others.

Beautiful, smart and brutally honest Cameron has been called a b*tch more times than she can count. But it never bothers her. The people who know her well love her, so why should she care about anyone else? But when her crush, Andrew, calls her out on her behavior, she decides it’s time for a change. Inspired by her English class assignment, The Taming of the Shrew, she decides to “tame herself.” But as one attempt after the next goes awry, Cameron learns that being nice doesn’t mean being soft. And, more importantly, nobody’s approval is worth losing who you are.

Wibberley and Siegemund-Broka’s punchy prose and deft (mis)handling of Shakespeare make for an entertaining read on their own, but the authors’ real strength lies in their treatment of Cameron and her friends, both new and old. While most of these characters aren’t exactly likable, they are all so complex and thoroughly developed that we can’t help but root for them—and see ourselves in them—as they work through the drama and the expectations that come with senior year.

The Taming of the Shrew gets a new update with Emily Wibberly and Austin Siegemund-Broka's new YA romance If I'm Being Honest.

YA FictionYA

Rayne & Delilah’s Midnite Matinee

Review by Sarah Welch

Josie and Delia are so similar that they’re often confused for sisters, especially when they’re decked out as their alter egos Rayne Ravenscroft and Delilah Darkwood in order to host their campy public access horror show, “Midnite Matinee.” But as graduation approaches, Josie dreads having to choose between staying in her hometown with Delia and leaving to pursue her TV career. Delia, meanwhile, is desperate to find a way to make each Saturday broadcast of “Midnite Matinee” good enough to hold Josie’s attention and maybe even bring back her own estranged father. 

Tensions come to a head, but eventually the friends realize that moving on doesn’t have to mean breaking up. In Rayne & Delilah’s Midnite Matinee, bestselling author Jeff Zentner (Goodbye Days) trades in his signature weightiness for a story filled with campy humor and a dash of feminism as he takes us behind the scenes of Josie and Delia’s public access show—and their friendship. But in making the shift in tone, Zentner has successfully retained his knack for crafting unique and charming teen characters who are tackling tough issues—like abandonment and mental illness—with grace and wit.

Josie and Delia’s spitfire dialogue will have readers in stitches, while the tough lessons they learn about growing up (despite all their best efforts) will be a powerful catharsis for anyone who’s felt the pain and loss that so often comes with changing friendships.

Josie and Delia are so similar that they’re often confused for sisters, especially when they’re decked out as their alter egos Rayne Ravenscroft and Delilah Darkwood in order to host their campy public access horror show, “Midnite Matinee.” But as graduation approaches, Josie dreads having to choose between staying in her hometown with Delia and leaving to pursue her TV career. Delia, meanwhile, is desperate to find a way to make each Saturday broadcast of “Midnite Matinee” good enough to hold Josie’s attention and maybe even bring back her own estranged father. 

YA FictionYA

Goodbye, Perfect

Review by Sarah Welch

Goodbye, Perfect, the latest novel from British author Sara Barnard (A Quiet Kind of Thunder, Fragile), is a bittersweet exploration of the bonds of friendship, the limits of how well we can know one another and the power of internal and external pressures to unravel our identities.

Eden and Bonnie have been best friends since they were 7 years old, when Eden—a rough-around-the-edges foster kid—arrived for her first day of school and perfect-in-every-way Bonnie took her under her wing. Though the two girls are drastically different, they’ve always balanced each other and kept each other steady. 

But during the week before the start of final exams, now 15-year-old Bonnie runs off with Jack, her secret boyfriend who is also their school’s 29-year-old music teacher, and Eden is left to question everything she thought she knew—both about her best friend and about herself.

In the vein of Carrie Fountain’s I’m Not Missing, Barnard’s novel is written from the point of view of the friend who’s left behind. Bonnie’s disappearance is the catalyst for Eden to begin a complex journey of growth and self-discovery, and Barnard uses a light touch to bring readers along as Eden receives a string of emails from Bonnie and re-evaluates her perceptions of love, friendship and her relationships with her adoptive family and her “lovely, non-secret, drama-free” boyfriend, Connor.

Fans of Sarah Dessen will be eager to inhale this nuanced, heartfelt coming-of-age story about the pain of losing what you once held dear—and the joy and satisfaction of finding yourself in the process.

 

This article was originally published in the February 2019 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Goodbye, Perfect, the latest novel from British author Sara Barnard (A Quiet Kind of Thunder, Fragile), is a bittersweet exploration of the bonds of friendship, the limits of how well we can know one another and the power of internal and external pressures to unravel our identities.

YA FictionYA

The Field Guide to the North American Teenager

Review by Sarah Welch

Following his parents’ divorce and his mother’s decision to take a job at the University of Texas, black Canadian teen Norris moves to perpetually muggy, burnt sienna-colored Austin, Texas. Leaving behind his ambivalent father and his only friend in Montreal, Norris is catapulted into a typical American public school midway through his junior year, and he finds himself hiding behind sarcasm and surface-level, stereotypical perceptions of everyone he meets. But on prom night, Norris messes up big time, and he realizes it might be time to drop the protective mask and embrace his new life.

Debut author Ben Philippe’s The Field Guide to the North American Teenager mirrors his own experience and paints an authentic portrait of what it’s like to feel like a fish out of water—not only for his protagonist but also for a richly developed cast of supporting characters whose Breakfast Club-style stereotypes fall away to reveal teens who are just trying to find their places in the world. Philippe’s buoyant prose and Norris’ snark allow some of the story’s heavier themes (broken families, depression, race) to feel light, poignant and approachable. And with this undercurrent of messy reality, characters are affected by these issues instead of defined by them.

For contemporary YA fans, this witty look at what we learn about ourselves by observing others will be a fantastic back-to-school read.

 

This article was originally published in the January 2019 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Debut author Ben Philippe’s The Field Guide to the North American Teenager mirrors his own experience and paints an authentic portrait of what it’s like to feel like a fish out of water—not only for his protagonist but also for a richly developed cast of supporting characters whose Breakfast Club-style stereotypes fall away to reveal teens who are just trying to find their places in the world. Philippe’s buoyant prose and Norris’ snark allow some of the story’s heavier themes (broken families, depression, race) to feel light, poignant and approachable. And with this undercurrent of messy reality, characters are affected by these issues instead of defined by them.

YA FictionYA

Blanca & Roja

Review by Sarah Welch

In Blanca & Roja, Anna-Marie McLemore (The Weight of Feathers, Wild Beauty) blends familiar fairytales The Swan Princess and Snow White and Rose Red into a rich, luxurious story of friendship, love and self-acceptance that is told with her signature style of magical realism.

Despite being polar opposites—Blanca is fair-skinned, blond and graceful while Roja is dark-skinned and a little wild—the del Cisne sisters are so close they might as well be one person. But thanks to a mysterious family curse, they know their time together is drawing short. As the del Cisne women have accepted for generations, soon the swans will take one of the two sisters for themselves, leaving the other to live as a human. But when two local boys—one who is fleeing a family scandal and the other who is running from parents who can’t understand why he identifies as their son and not as their daughter—become entangled in the del Cisne girls’ fates, the swans’ magic becomes unpredictable, and all four teens have to face difficult truths about themselves and their families in order to survive.

McLemore’s fans will be delighted to dive back into her lush, poetic prose and revel in the nuanced composition of her characters and their relationships as they learn to navigate a world in which they must constantly overcome stifling expectations and damaging stereotypes in order to protect their identities and their hearts.

In Blanca & Roja, McLemore gives readers a modern twist on timeless stories, making this the perfect read for a shadowy autumn afternoon.

In Blanca & Roja, YA author Anna-Marie McLemore blends familiar fairy tales  into a rich, magical and luxurious story of friendship, love and self-acceptance.
YA FictionYA

Brave Enough

Review by Sarah Welch

The youngest dancer in the Atlanta Ballet Conservatory, Cason Martin is one of the best ballerinas in the country. Her very first memories are of ballet, and she’s well on her way to a successful career on the stage. But when a strain in her leg turns into her worst nightmare, she knows she may never perform again. While Cason is learning to give up control of her life, Davis Channing—a cancer survivor and recovering drug addict—is regaining control of his by volunteering in the oncology department that saved him once before. As the two teens get to know each other at the hospital, they discover that, together, they may just be brave enough to reinvent their dreams.

Kati Garnder’s debut novel, Brave Enough, is in many ways a frothy, fun teenage romance, but the author—a childhood cancer survivor and amputee herself—tackles tough subjects with a masterful nuance that is both candid and compassionate. The emotions Gardner’s characters experience as they swing through hope and grief and back again feel raw, real and deserved, and each is well developed and complex. Whether they can always see it or not, Gardner has made sure Cason, Davis and their friends are much more than their afflictions.

Though the plot is somewhat predictable, Gardner’s strong storytelling skills and her knack for dealing with subject matter that is so often relegated to hushed whispers make her debut novel a powerful one.

Kati Garnder’s debut novel, Brave Enough, is in many ways a frothy, fun teenage romance, but the author—a childhood cancer survivor and amputee herself—tackles tough subjects with a masterful nuance that is both candid and compassionate.
YA FictionYA

A Heart in a Body in the World

Review by Sarah Welch

BookPage Teen Top Pick, October 2018

Haunted by the tragedy that upended her life last year—and the source of her trauma, whom she refers to as the Taker—Annabelle takes off running from her hometown in Seattle. Her destination: Washington, D.C. Why? She’s not going to think about that. For now, all she can do is run. But with the support of her grandfather, who follows her in his RV, and her brother and best friends back home, Annabelle becomes a reluctant activist. As her feet bring her closer to her destination, Annabelle begins to hope that someday she’ll be able to shake her guilt and shame over what happened.

National Book Award finalist Deb Caletti (Honey, Baby, Sweetheart) makes readers wait until the end to find out why Annabelle is running 2,794 miles, but from the very first page, she tackles issues that will be painfully familiar to teen readers, including the constant, simmering fear of assault, the recurring realization that leaders—in school or in D.C.—are unable or unwilling to protect them, and the infuriating internal tug of war between being kind and being vigilant.

Written in driving prose that conveys a powerful sense of urgency and with loving characterizations of Annabelle and her family and friends in all their flawed, tender glory, A Heart in a Body in the World delivers a powerful look at love, loss and guilt as readers follow Annabelle’s cross-country journey to self-forgiveness.

Equal parts heartbreaking and hopeful, A Heart in a Body in the World reads like a battle cry for young women in the #MeToo era.

 

This article was originally published in the October 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Haunted by the tragedy that upended her life last year—and the source of her trauma, whom she refers to as the Taker—Annabelle takes off running from her hometown in Seattle. Her destination: Washington, D.C. Why? She’s not going to think about that. For now, all she can do is run. But with the support of her grandfather, who follows her in his RV, and her brother and best friends back home, Annabelle becomes a reluctant activist. As her feet bring her closer to her destination, Annabelle begins to hope that someday she’ll be able to shake her guilt and shame over what happened.

YA FictionYAThriller

A surefire crossover hit

Review by Sarah Welch

BookPage Teen Top Pick, September 2018

When Sadie was 6 years old, her sister Mattie’s arrival provided her life with purpose. So when Mattie is found dead 13 years later, Sadie is destroyed—and determined to bring her sister’s killer to justice, no matter the cost. Sadie’s car is soon found abandoned, and her surrogate grandmother, having given up on the authorities, begs investigative radio reporter West McCray to look into her granddaughter’s case. While West is reluctant to get involved with Sadie’s story (“Girls go missing all the time,” he says), he soon becomes obsessed with finding the 19-year-old and wants to help bring her home before it’s too late.

In the highly anticipated Sadie, Courtney Summers delivers a hard-hitting look at the depth of a sister’s love. Summers confronts drug abuse, abandonment and child sexual abuse head-on as she tells the dark story of Sadie’s desperate attempt to avenge her sister and West’s desperate attempt to find her.

Summers’ narrative alternates between Sadie’s first-person perspective of her journey and the script of West’s “Serial”-like podcast as he traces her steps, and both are riveting. Summers’ sharp prose—filled with raw emotion, gritty detail and almost-tangible suspense—will break readers’ hearts over and over for Sadie and just about everyone she encounters on her mission.

Sadie is a gripping, visceral thriller that is at once difficult to fathom and impossible to put down.

 

This article was originally published in the September 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

When Sadie was 6 years old, her sister Mattie’s arrival provided her life with purpose. So when Mattie is found dead 13 years later, Sadie is destroyed—and determined to bring her sister’s killer to justice, no matter the cost.

YA FictionYA

Since you’ve been gone

Review by Sarah Welch

Miranda and Syd have been best friends for as long as they can remember. Both abandoned by their mothers, they swore an oath that they would be each other’s person forever. So when Syd runs away midway through senior year, Miranda is left anchorless. As she tries to discover where Syd went and why—all while navigating college decisions and her first love with Nick, the boy she’s had a crush on for ages—she realizes it’s time to step out of her best friend’s shadow and figure out who she is on her own.

I’m Not Missing is a powerful debut novel about a young girl dealing with devastating loss and ultimately finding herself. An award-winning poet, author Carrie Fountain has a knack for crisp prose, which is evident in her vivid depictions of the New Mexico landscape. But her biggest strength is the realism of her characters and their relationships with one another. Miranda’s budding romance with Nick will feel utterly relatable to any reader who’s bumbled through first love, and the evolution of Miranda’s friendship with Syd is equal parts heartwarming and painful in the way only a changing friendship can be. Fountain also explores drastically different family relationships in Miranda’s, Syd’s and Nick’s home lives. Readers will see themselves or people they know on every page.

I’m Not Missing is a must-read for any teen who’s felt the pain of lost friendship and the challenge of finding herself.

 

This article was originally published in the July 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Miranda and Syd have been best friends for as long as they can remember. Both abandoned by their mothers, they swore an oath that they would be each other’s person forever. So when Syd runs away midway through senior year, Miranda is left anchorless. As she tries to discover where Syd went and why—all while navigating college decisions and her first love with Nick, the boy she’s had a crush on for ages—she realizes it’s time to step out of her best friend’s shadow and figure out who she is on her own.

Science Fiction & FantasyYA FictionYAFantasy

Let the magic lead you

Review by Sarah Welch

BookPage Teen Top Pick, June 2018

As her 18th birthday approaches, Georgina is beginning to fear that she may be the first Fernweh woman in generations not to possess magical powers. But she tries to brush her nerves aside as she prepares for her last tourist season on her hometown island, By-the-Sea. Every summer on the island has been more or less like the one before, but then By-the-Sea’s iconic 300-year-old bird goes missing, a storm floods the island, and Georgina’s twin sister, Mary, begins leaving a trail of feathers in her wake. Georgina knows nothing will ever be the same.

Katrina Leno’s latest novel, Summer of Salt, is a haunting coming-of-age story tinged with magic and steeped in tradition in the vein of Shea Ernshaw’s The Wicked Deep and Leslye Walton’s The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender.

The relationships between the novel’s strong female characters are particularly poignant: From Georgina’s blossoming romance with a girl named Prue and the bonds between the Fernweh women to the friendships that sustain them when the unthinkable happens, Summer of Salt is a profound and subtly feminist tribute to the power of female connection.

Leno’s whimsical prose is grounded by the dark events—both fantastical and all too real—that befall the island and its residents (young readers should be prepared to face issues of sexual assault), and the eclectic cast of well-developed characters is made familiar by the weight of the decisions they have to make as they learn the true meanings of love, sacrifice and magic.

 

This article was originally published in the June 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

As her 18th birthday approaches, Georgina is beginning to fear that she may be the first Fernweh woman in generations not to possess magical powers. But she tries to brush her nerves aside as she prepares for her last tourist season on her hometown island, By-the-Sea. Every summer on the island has been more or less like the one before, but then By-the-Sea’s iconic 300-year-old bird goes missing, a storm floods the island, and Georgina’s twin sister, Mary, begins leaving a trail of feathers in her wake. Georgina knows nothing will ever be the same.

YA FictionYA

Difficult questions worth asking

Review by Sarah Welch

BookPage Teen Top Pick, May 2018

Twins Mara and Owen are closer than close, so when Mara’s best friend, Hannah, accuses Owen of rape, Mara is shattered. Torn between the brother she loves more than anything and her own visceral understanding of the truth, Mara doesn’t know where to turn or how to reconcile family loyalty with right and wrong. As she tries to grasp this new reality, Mara must come to terms with a trauma from her own past as well.

In her highly anticipated novel Girl Made of Stars, Ashley Herring Blake (Suffer Love, How to Make a Wish) delivers a thoughtful, genuine exploration of consent, victim blaming and sexual assault—themes that fill the media today. Far from an ideological lecture, the novel forces readers to grapple with a difficult question: What do you do when someone you love is accused of rape?

Blake’s prose is specific and captivating, but what really brings this book to life is her ability to render fully developed, complex and diverse characters. From Mara and Owen to Hannah and Mara’s ex-girlfriend to the teens’ parents, all of the characters struggle in their own ways with what this situation means for their relationships moving forward. Each character is both deeply likable and deeply flawed, and readers will struggle to find their footing right along with Mara.

Though younger teens should be aware of Blake’s no-holds-barred exploration of the themes of sexual assault, homophobia and anxiety, Girl Made of Stars adds an important dimension to the discussions we’re having today, both in public and in private, and Blake’s deft handling of tough topics makes for an engaging and powerful read.

 

This article was originally published in the May 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Twins Mara and Owen are closer than close, so when Mara’s best friend, Hannah, accuses Owen of rape, Mara is shattered. Torn between the brother she loves more than anything and her own visceral understanding of the truth, Mara doesn’t know where to turn or how to reconcile family loyalty with right and wrong. As she tries to grasp this new reality, Mara must come to terms with a trauma from her own past as well.

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