Drama. It’s a quiet kind of drama. There are no histrionics, just everyone’s living pain. It breathes in the air and sometimes it’s this huge overwhelming thing and other times it’s the shadow following most of the characters. Sometimes the Girl is filled with quiet angst. Life is like that after a loss. It’s not always filled with screams and tears - at least not on the outside. Jennifer Mason-Black does an excellent job of peeling back the layers and letting us inside these raw characters.

There is so much that humans swallow and just nod their head and move on. For women, I think there is a ghosting intersectionality which you can see through Elsie and Holi. We are taught that we are less than, so we expect to be treated as less than. Our mouths may say one thing, but when it happens to you…. Believing someone in a higher position when they come at you sideways and say that your dreams are nothing and that you will not succeed because they need to do it to feel better about themselves. It hits hard and leaves a scar. Something that both Elsie and Holi resonate with.

Then there is another main issue in the book and that is what happens when a good friend dies. How do you move on when you were a trio, but now you function alone. Elsie’s brother took a way that changed everyone. Mason-Black allows the characters to be angry about this and petrified at the same time.

They keep a good balance between discovering Elsie’s past, dealing with Holi’s present, and all of the events in the recent past that literally stopped Holi in her tracks. Sometimes the Girl is a quiet spin of angst and change. When we can step back from the grief and see beyond it. Holi, Elsie, and Bridget’s story is one that you can connect with and will leave you still thinking about it long after the final page is turned.

I was approved for this, and then I went to read it, and I wasn't able to read it. I will look for it when it comes out.

I loved the writing of this. The story between Holi and Elise during this whole book was off and on, but Holi was always there to help Elise with anything that she needed. It started out as a cleaning of a house, but it became more than just that.

You have the story of Elise and Holi, but you also have the Holi still trying to have a life outside of "work" and trying to keep Elise's secrets safe from her family.

Thank you NetGalley for the Arc!

Oh this one’s personal.

I very nearly skipped this book because of the YA genre marker but I am so glad I listened to the voice in my head that felt drawn to it!

Holi, a young writer struggling in the aftermath of a series of intensely challenging life events, takes a summer job organizing the attic of acclaimed dying author Elsie and finds herself unwrapping a mystery, taking responsibility for a legacy, and finding answers she didn’t know she was looking for.

This book is what YA should always be. It respects teenagers as full humans with complex thoughts and experiences who don’t need to be talked down to and thus is engaging for a reader of any age. I feel especially wary of YA books that include certain content warnings (suicide, SA) but the author handles these themes with great respect, care, and understanding and creates an excellent realistic portrayal of trauma and healing. Here YA doesn’t signify a lower quality of writing - simply a book that centers young adults and their experiences.

I was drawn into this book by characters that are so real I felt like I might round a corner and run into them, including a narrator I instantly loved even when she was annoying me. The mysteries in Elsie’s attic got me hooked, and each additional storyline deepened my care for the characters and for Holi’s story. The ending was difficult, satisfying, and incredibly thoughtful.

I can’t write this review without mentioning the setting. I had no idea going into it that this book would take place in a small town where I lived for over a decade, and Mason-Black captures this town and the people in it with incredible precision. This includes the good and the bad (Ex: the MC narrating about her relative poverty despite being in what is actually a quite privileged position drives me crazy but it’s incredibly accurate to my real-life experiences in this town and the very real frustration it brought up is honestly a bonus-point to the writer in my opinion). Regardless of reader familiarity with the place it is obvious that Mason-Black knows her world and characters inside and out.

Rounding up to 5 stars because YA needs more books like this. I will absolutely be reading all of this author’s work! Thank you to Net-Galley and Lerner Publishing for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.