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.
