Hi Readers ! Welcome to my stop for " The words we keep" by Erin Stewart. An huge thanks to Tbr and Beyond tours for this chance and to PRH International for the earc !
TITLE: The words we keep
AUTHOR : Erin Stewart
PUBLISHER : Penguin Random House
GENRE : Young Adult Contemporary
PUBLISHING DATE : March 12, 2022
BOOK LINKS: Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Indigo | IndieBound
A beautifully realistic, relatable story about mental
health and the healing powers of art–perfect forfans ofGirl in Piecesand
HowitFeels to Float.It’s been three months since The Night on the Bathroom
Floor–when Lily found her older sister Alicehurting herself. Ever since then,
Lily has been desperately trying to keep things together, for herselfand for
her family. But now Aliceis coming home from her treatment program and it is
becomingharder for Lily to ignore all of the feelings she’s been trying to
outrun.Enter Micah, a new student at school with a past of his own. He was in
treatment with Alice andseems determined to getLily to process not only Alice’s
experience, but her own. Because Lily hassecrets, too. Compulsions she can’t
seem to let go of and thoughts she can’t drown out.When Lily and Micah embark
on an art project for school involving finding poetry in unexpectedplaces, she
realizes that it’s the words she’s been swallowing that desperately want to
breakthrough.
The night Lily's older
sister Alice attempted suicide, her life and that of her family were completely
destroyed. From that moment Lily has tried to show herself strong and to put
the pieces of her family back together, but hiding from everyone her malaise
and her increasingly frequent panic attacks. When Alice is discharged from the
clinic where she was admitted, that precarious balance that Lily is trying to
maintain could collapse, leading her to permanently lose control over
everything. As if this weren't enough, Micah arrives at his school, a new
student with a turbulent past who had been hospitalized with Alice, and who
could reveal the truth about her sister's illness to everyone. Lily will try
hard to avoid the newcomer, but when she is paired right with Micah in a major
art project, the outcome of which will depend on her admission to Berkeley, she
will have to put her plan aside. Lily is going through writer's block, so if
she really wants to have any chance of winning the competition, she will be forced
to enlist Micah's help to solve the problem. The more time they spend together,
the more their initial distrust will turn into friendship and later also into
something unexpected and deeper. But will Micah's closeness and these new
feelings be enough to push Lily to face once and for all her demons and to find
the courage to finally be herself?
This wonderful Contemporary Young Adult managed to conquer me from the first page, so much so that i completed the reading in just one day. The author with her smooth, delicate and engaging style managed to make me passionate about the story told without ever losing interest. This was certainly not an easy reading given also the strong themes dealt with. In this novel, so realistic and current, in fact, the author has decided to talk about Bullying, Panic Attacks, Anxiety, Depression and Bipolar Disorder, problems that increasingly affect young people, and which unfortunately, despite being in 2022, are still seen like taboo.
The protagonist of this book is Lily, a character I immediately felt in tune with. In fact, during my adolescence, albeit in a different way, I suffered from anxiety and an obsessive compulsive disorder due to the strong stress to which I was subjected. Ever since her sister Alice attempted suicide, Lily relives that moment over and over and feels guilty for not being able to help her and for not understanding her illness in time. Having to pretend both inside and outside the house that nothing has happened and that things will fall into place again is wearing her down. Lily feels totally overwhelmed by this situation and with her increasingly frequent panic attacks, she fears she might go crazy and have something wrong with her sister. When Alice is discharged after several months, Lily no longer knows how to communicate with her, the girl in front of her now seems to be a stranger. And as much as he tries to re-establish a dialogue with her, Lily fears that their relationship is now lost forever.
However, the arrival of Micah in his life will be able to bring back some light in this darkness of his. From the first meeting Lily was immediately struck by this boy so different from those known so far, with his eccentric clothes and bright colors, and with his way of doing so particular. A guy who doesn't seem to care at all about the judgment and negative comments of others. Micah and Lily couldn't be more different. Lily needs to have everything under control, she is very precise and knows what she wants. Micah, on the other hand, is a very sensitive and fragile boy who lives for the day without making plans, with a great artistic talent thanks to which he was able to face his depression. Thanks to his help, Lily will be able to regain the desire to write and for the first time she will feel free to finally be herself. Micah will push her to try new things, to let go and get involved, or as he likes to say "to color outside the lines". But above all he will understand that not always being perfect is not synonymous with failure. I loved Lily and Micah and their story so authentic and unique, that we will gradually see it blossom page after page.
I can only recommend to everyone the reading of "The words we keep", an incredible and moving young adult who will manage to get straight to the heart.
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