You
“So you’re stalking me,” you say without a trace of sadness and you smack my leg, you like me, you do.
Hannah, Claudia, Sadie, and Jenny are teenage girls who have suffered tragedies and are working through them in the only way they known how. Whether it’s mental illness, fear and paranoia, or the loss of a friend or sister, they’re all struggling to make it through to the other side. Worst of all, each of these girls is ultimately alone on their arduous journey.
Once Upon a River
The Leach and the Churn and the Coln all have their separate journeys before they join the Thames to swell its waters, and in similar fashion the Vaughans and the Armstrongs and Lily White had their own stories in the years and days before they became part of this one. But join it they did, and we now come to the meeting of the waterways.
What They Don't Know
At the beginning of this journal I wrote how I had everything but didn’t know it. What I meant was, I had nothing, because it was built on lies. Now, I have nothing. But that nothing is built on truth. So I have everything.
Baby Teeth
Sometimes she wished she could remember being in Mommy’s tummy. Were they both really happy then? When their blood was all jumbled up and they shared a mystery?
Tell Me Lies
The only thing that made sense was that I knew I had fallen in love with him—it was what had made these past months so horrific. People always talk about realizing they’re in love during the happy moments, but I think you realize it in the bad ones.
We'll Fly Away
When you had to survive every minute, you were always seconds away from making a decision that could ruin everything.
The Death and Life of Eleanor Parker
I want to cry but it doesn’t feel like there are any tears in me, as if whatever happened in the river last night has washed away the parts that made me who I am.
The Perfect Friend
The patchwork of deceit unfurls, and I study it.
My Whole Truth
I know I should say something. About my face or about what really happened. I should do it right now, while we’re alone and so much has already been revealed. But I can’t.
Undead Girl Gang
Everyone grieves differently--see: me screaming into my pillows for a week--and I imagine it’s a lot worse when you realize that you’re the one who’s dead.
White Oleander
How many children had this happened to? How many children were like me, floating like plankton in the wide ocean? I thought how tenuous the links were between mother and children, between friends, family, things you think are eternal. Everything could be lost, more easily than anyone could imagine.
Are You Sleeping
That’s where you’re wrong, Jo. The truth is never complicated. It’s just the truth. Circumstances may be complicated, but the truth is always black and white.
Girl Made of Stars
Before he leaves, Dad just stares at me as if he doesn’t even know who I am. He probably doesn’t. We don’t know who any of us are. Years under the same roof and we’re all strangers, circling one another and living with happy illusions about star-infused twins and the parents who love them so much that they let them adventure in the sky.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Dear friend,
There is a lot to tell you about the last two weeks. A lot of it is good, but a lot of it is bad. Again, I don’t know why this always happens.
A List of Cages
For just a second I feel a burst of pure happiness. I’ve always wondered what I’d say if I saw him again. Then it occurs to me that there’s nothing to say, except maybe I’m sorry, and my happiness falls away.
Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda
They put me in a box, and every time I try to nudge the lid open, they slam it back down. It’s like nothing about me is allowed to change.
The Woman in the Window
Anna is an agoraphobe who surveys the monotonous lives of her neighbors from her window but then witnesses a violent crime. Anna’s agoraphobia isn’t the only obstacle stopping her from solving the crime-- she’s on several medications and combines those with copious amounts of wine which causes law enforcement to brush her off as delusional.