This considered and highly engaging exploration of the summer one confident but somewhat sheltered teenager’s world is turned upside down surprises and endears at every turn. It’s character-driven but delivers on plot as well as premise. It’s warm, sweet and heartfelt, but it’s also serious, thoughtful and, occasionally, heartbreaking. I wasn’t expecting to enjoy it as much as I did, but it really blew me away. Kind, accepting, hard-working Lucy is a complex and well-realized protagonist, doing her best in the face of challenges and slowly realizing she is in a place where it is okay to feel as she does – angry, conflicted, afraid, guilty for the chinks showing in her once-dutiful armour – and what’s more, where new friends and unexpected allies will feel it with her.

Among them are fellow counsellors like friendly Anna, guarded Keely, and outgoing Tambe, each with histories and complexities of their own. Best of all, however, is the bespectacled Henry Jones: lively, thoughtful and flawed, he cares deeply (and dances enthusiastically), and is wonderfully well-drawn. The depth of characterisation in this book puts most contemporaries to shame, but the romance is perhaps even better. It’s realistic, passionate and honest. Lucy and Jones actually spend time together and get to know each other – their shared talent for music and equal devotion to the kids of camp are particular highlights - turning theirs from sweet romance to gorgeous relationship in a way that soars. I loved seeing Lucy’s interactions with her young charges, too, as she tries to figure them out whether by teaching shy Thuy to swim to giving Nadia a shoulder to lean on. Vibrant, diverse and individual, these characters leap from the page.

The Names They Gave Us is filled with the requisite moments of plot and drama, secrets and revelations, humour and heartbreak. It’s in the balancing of this quickly-enrapturing plot with the brilliant handling of heavy subjects that Lord excels. Frank, compassionate and incredibly empathetic, the vivid portrayal of its characters’ multifarious, and sometimes traumatic, experiences is exemplified by Lord’s unabashed confrontation of themes as varied as grief, sexuality, and religion. The immense care and sensitivity with which Lord depicts faith allows her to capture both Lucy’s belief and struggles. This is YA with present parents in the shape of Lucy’s funny, loving mom and open, good-natured pastor dad, and with fabulous, imperfect friendships, too. The ending is quite rushed and abrupt, and the prose style is a little choppy, but the book is absorbing from start to finish.

A full version of this review will appear on my blog closer to publication.