Publishers Weekly
07/21/2014
Zhang debuts with the haunting story of a suicide attempt gone awry as high school junior Liz Emerson drives her Mercedes off the road, winding up in a coma. The reasons for Liz’s actions and her substantial self-hatred emerge in chapters that alternate between the present, as friends and family gather at the hospital to find out whether Liz will pull through, and the weeks leading up to the car crash, along with examples of Liz’s cruelty over the years. Among the sources of guilt and pain swirling around Liz’s brain are her father’s death, her mother’s absentee parenting, her friends’ drug problem and abortion (both of which Liz had a hand in), her own struggles with bulimia and loneliness, and the many classmates’ reputations she has helped ruin. At times, the story takes on the feel of a novel-length guilt trip, all but entreating readers to recognize how they could be kinder in their own lives. But Zhang writes with confidence and finesse, and many readers will be moved as Liz recognizes the lives she has damaged. Ages 14–up. (Sept.)
From the Publisher
The breezy yet powerful and exceptionally perceptive writing style, multifaceted characters, surprisingly hopeful ending, and pertinent contemporary themes frame an engrossing, thought-provoking story that will be snapped up by readers of Todd Mitchell’s Backwards and Gayle Forman’s If I Stay.” — School Library Journal
“The haunting story of a suicide attempt gone awry as high school junior Liz Emerson drives her Mercedes off the road, winding up in a coma…Zhang writes with confidence and finesse, and many readers will be moved as Liz recognizes the lives she has damaged.” — Kirkus Reviews
“An impressive debut . . . should appeal to readers who sobbed through Jay Asher’s Thirteen Reasons Why.” — Booklist
“Amy Zhang crashes onto the YA scene with this debut novel about a physics student who puts Newton’s Laws of Motion into practice by driving her Mercedes into a tree. . . . A good pick for fans of Lauren Oliver’s Before I Fall and Gayle Forman’s If I Stay.” — Shelf Awareness for Readers
“Insightful . . . it’s interesting to see the mean girl through the eyes of the people who love her, despite (and sometimes because of ) her flaws.” — Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books
Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books
Insightful . . . it’s interesting to see the mean girl through the eyes of the people who love her, despite (and sometimes because of ) her flaws.
Booklist
An impressive debut . . . should appeal to readers who sobbed through Jay Asher’s Thirteen Reasons Why.
Shelf Awareness for Readers
Amy Zhang crashes onto the YA scene with this debut novel about a physics student who puts Newton’s Laws of Motion into practice by driving her Mercedes into a tree. . . . A good pick for fans of Lauren Oliver’s Before I Fall and Gayle Forman’s If I Stay.
Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
Insightful . . . it’s interesting to see the mean girl through the eyes of the people who love her, despite (and sometimes because of ) her flaws.
Booklist
An impressive debut . . . should appeal to readers who sobbed through Jay Asher’s Thirteen Reasons Why.
Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books
Insightful . . . it’s interesting to see the mean girl through the eyes of the people who love her, despite (and sometimes because of ) her flaws.
School Library Journal
07/01/2014
Gr 8 Up—Liz Emerson, a junior, "accidentally" runs her car off an icy roadway. Ashamed and depressed about the person she has become; detesting the loneliness when her widowed businesswoman mother travels; tired of being equally admired and deservedly hated by peers, she decides to end it all. Told from the inventive and effective viewpoint of Liz's childhood "imaginary friend," illuminating scenarios fluctuate between the hospital where Liz hangs on to life, to Liz's early youth, to past and present interactions between Liz and those around her. Liz and her two best friends, Kennie and Julia, party hearty often and treat others cruelly, yet it's Liz who confronts the guys' basketball team as they sexually taunt a lesbian classmate. Liz pushes pregnant Kennie to have an abortion, prods Julia into drug dependency, and plots to bully Liam who has a crush on her, yet she silently acknowledges and internalizes her faults, wishing someone would make her pay. After an unsuccessful last-ditch effort to get help, she designates herself as that someone by planning her suicide. Although the subject matter is heavy and there are a few easily brushed-off awkward moments, the breezy yet powerful and exceptionally perceptive writing style, multifaceted characters, surprisingly hopeful ending, and pertinent contemporary themes frame an engrossing, thought-provoking story that will be snapped up by readers of Todd Mitchell's Backwards (Candlewick, 2013) and Gayle Forman's If I Stay (Dutton, 2009.)—Diane P. Tuccillo, Poudre River Public Library District, CO
JANUARY 2015 - AudioFile
Narrator Julia Whelan's voice is calm and clear as she presents an unvarnished picture of Liz Emerson, who dominates her world, bending others to her will while shielding herself from the consequences. Or so she did. As Liz lies unconscious after surviving a suicide attempt, an omniscient narrator presents a series of flashbacks leading up to her fateful decision. Expertly managing a nonlinear story filled with a wide range of characters, Whelan delivers a compelling performance. There's a significant amount of disturbing content—bullying, alcohol and drug abuse, sexual assault—and Whelan doesn’t shy away from portraying the emotional fallout as she movingly delivers the reasons behind Liz’s actions. A.S. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2014-05-28
A teen tries to commit suicide by crashing her car in this debut from an adolescent author.High school junior Liz Emerson hovers between life and death in the hospital after purposefully running her car off the road, while friends, teachers and curious classmates gather to stand watch and hope for the best. Strategically timed flashbacks to weeks, days and minutes before the crash, some voiced by Liz’s platitude-spouting childhood imaginary friend, reveal a wealthy, popular girl tortured by regret over her cruel actions against others. Her father died when she was young, and her widowed mother ignores Liz in favor of her globe-trotting job, but Liz knows that’s no excuse for getting a friend hooked on drugs, urging another friend to have an abortion and making a mean viral video of a boy who has a crush on her. “Some nights, Liz looked back and counted the bodies, all the lives she had ruined simply by existing. So she chose to stop existing.” Will Liz pull through? Depending on whether they identify with Liz or her victims, readers may be split about the novel’s abrupt ending. Even though the text is peppered with clichés, the inventive structure and inspired use of the imaginary-friend narrator help overcome the earnest, immature prose and heavy-handed messages.Superior scaffolding, didactic execution. (Fiction. 13-16)
