34 Pieces of You
Ellie died and Sarah did not. At first this is all anyone knows. There were pills and there was booze, but were the girls planning a double suicide? The three teens closest to Ellie are left to sort it out. Sarah had seen Ellie act with inexplicable cruelty and kindness throughout the five years of their friendship. It was Ellie who taught Sarah to escape emotional pain through self-mutilation. Ellie’s older brother, Jake, knows the terrible secrets of Ellie’s childhood. Now he is burdened with the memory of Ellie’s frantic phone calls just before she died. Sarah’s younger sister, Jess, may be keeping the truest secret of all: a box hidden under Ellie’s bed containing 34 mysterious notes. Told from the alternating viewpoints of Jess, Jake, and Sarah, the story is most moving when portraying the grief of those left behind after a teen’s death. Recommend this to readers looking for something similar to Thirteen Reasons Why (2007), by Jay Asher, and remind them to keep a box of tissues nearby. Grades 8-11. --Diane Colson