Start Here

by Trish Doller

Overview

Two teens go on a life-changing sailing trip as they deal with the grief of losing their best friend in this heart-wrenching, hopeful novel from the author of Something Like Normal and In a Perfect World.

Willa and Taylor were supposed to spend the summer after high school sailing from Ohio to Key West with their best friend, Finley. But Finley died before graduation, leaving them with a twenty-five-foot sailboat, a list of clues leading them to destinations along the way, and a friendship that’s hanging by a thread.

Now, Willa and Taylor have two months and two thousand miles to discover how life works without Finley—and to decide if their own friendship is worth saving.

From acclaimed author Trish Doller comes a poignant tale of forgiveness, grief, and the brilliant discoveries we make within ourselves when we least expect it.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781481479929
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers
Publication date:	08/18/2020
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	671,150
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.10(d)
Lexile:	880L (what's this?)
Age Range:	14 - 18 Years

About the Author

Trish Doller is the author of Something Like Normal, which was an ABA New Voices Pick and a finalist for NPR’s Best-Ever Teen Novels, among many other accolades; Where the Stars Still Shine; The Devil You Know; In a Perfect World; and Start Here. She has been a newspaper reporter, radio personality, and bookseller, and lives in Fort Myers, Florida, with a relentlessly optimistic Border Collie and a pirate.

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Editorial Reviews

Doller takes the classic road-trip trope and gives it a seafaring twist” —Booklist

“An enjoyable voyage to take.” —Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

07/19/2019

Gr 9 Up-Willa, Taylor, and Finley had plans to spend the summer after high school graduation sailing from Sandusky, OH, to Key West, FL, in an old sailboat they purchased two years earlier. Finley is better friends with the other two than they are with each other, and she knows that her time with them is limited. Finley's 13-year battle against cancer is over. But before she is gone, she sets up the trip for Willa and Taylor—with 14 instructions—knowing that they will need this journey more than ever. What follows is a story both heartbreaking and hopeful as the two girls try to define themselves and their friendship without the one person who held them together. While there are love interests mentioned, the focus of the book is on female friendships and how the two girls navigate life in the wake of grief. The story is told in alternating point-of-view chapters from the two protagonists. Each character is well-drawn and the story is authentic. Neither Willa nor Taylor are perfect and not everything turns out OK, because that's how real life goes. VERDICT A great summer read combining a story of friendship, soul-searching, and an epic road trip. Recommended for fans of Sarah Dessen.-Elaine Baran Black, Georgia Public Library Service, Atlanta

School Library Journal

2019-05-22
Two girls navigate friendship, relationships, grief, and the Great Loop.

Willa and Taylor's friendship is tenuous at best now that their mutual friend Finley is gone. The girls set off during the summer before college to sail part of the Great Loop, a network of waterways, from Sandusky, Ohio, to Key West, Florida. The pair is fulfilling a deathbed promise they made to Finley by completing the trip the three had intended to take together. To help guide their adventure, they follow a list of clues that Finley created before she died of leukemia. While both girls must figure out how to go on without their best friend, brown-skinned Willa also must reconcile her relationship with her single white mother and make a decision about her future: Will she do what is practical or follow her passion? Taylor, who is white, is coming to terms with her sexuality and working through insecurities she felt in her relationships with Finley and Willa. Both girls eventually learn just how strong they are. The matter of Willa's ethnicity—her father's identity is unknown—feels unresolved. Doller (In a Perfect World, 2017, etc.) effectively tackles the difficult emotions that come with losing your best friend. Clear and evocative descriptions of the mechanics of sailing and the many places the girls visit en route enhance the novel.

While not groundbreaking, this is an enjoyable voyage to take. (Fiction. 14-18)

Kirkus Reviews