Oh this one’s personal.

I very nearly skipped this book because of the YA genre marker but I am so glad I listened to the voice in my head that felt drawn to it!

Holi, a young writer struggling in the aftermath of a series of intensely challenging life events, takes a summer job organizing the attic of acclaimed dying author Elsie and finds herself unwrapping a mystery, taking responsibility for a legacy, and finding answers she didn’t know she was looking for.

This book is what YA should always be. It respects teenagers as full humans with complex thoughts and experiences who don’t need to be talked down to and thus is engaging for a reader of any age. I feel especially wary of YA books that include certain content warnings (suicide, SA) but the author handles these themes with great respect, care, and understanding and creates an excellent realistic portrayal of trauma and healing. Here YA doesn’t signify a lower quality of writing - simply a book that centers young adults and their experiences.

I was drawn into this book by characters that are so real I felt like I might round a corner and run into them, including a narrator I instantly loved even when she was annoying me. The mysteries in Elsie’s attic got me hooked, and each additional storyline deepened my care for the characters and for Holi’s story. The ending was difficult, satisfying, and incredibly thoughtful.

I can’t write this review without mentioning the setting. I had no idea going into it that this book would take place in a small town where I lived for over a decade, and Mason-Black captures this town and the people in it with incredible precision. This includes the good and the bad (Ex: the MC narrating about her relative poverty despite being in what is actually a quite privileged position drives me crazy but it’s incredibly accurate to my real-life experiences in this town and the very real frustration it brought up is honestly a bonus-point to the writer in my opinion). Regardless of reader familiarity with the place it is obvious that Mason-Black knows her world and characters inside and out.

Rounding up to 5 stars because YA needs more books like this. I will absolutely be reading all of this author’s work! Thank you to Net-Galley and Lerner Publishing for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.