num_pages: 274
description: An electric debut novel about love addiction and loss; the story of two girls and the feral year that will cost one her life and define the others for decadesEverything about fifteen-year-old Cats new town in rural Michigan is lonely and off-kilter until she meets her neighbor the manic beautiful pill-popping Marlena. Cat inexperienced and desperate for connection is quickly lured into Marlenas orbit by little more than an arched eyebrow and a shake of white-blond hair. As the two girls turn the untamed landscape of their desolate small town into a kind of playground Cat catalogues a litany of firstsfirst drink first cigarette first kisswhile Marlenas habits harden and calcify. Within the year Marlena is dead drowned in six inches of icy water in the woods nearby. Now decades later when a ghost from that pivotal year surfaces unexpectedly Cat must try to forgive herself and move on even as the memory of Marlena keeps her tangled in the past. Alive with an urgent unshakable tenderness Julie Buntins Marlena is an unforgettable look at the people who shape us beyond reason and the ways it might be possible to pull oneself back from the brink.
language: English
title: Marlena
publisher: Henry Holt and Co.