★★★
This book deals with issues like depression, suicide, and other challenges teens in high school deal with. Zhang tells the story of Liz Emerson, the “it” girl of a small town and how her seemingly perfect life drove her to fatally crash her car. It shows that what we show on the surface is not what is actually beneath us.
Liz has always felt responsible for other people’s problems. And to some extent, she is. She’s the one who got her friend Julia addicted to drugs, kissed her friend Kennie’s boyfriend, and ruined people’s social lives. She’s filled with self-loathing for her actions, yet she can’t stop being the person she’s become. Add a cheating boyfriend, an absent mother, and a case of bulimia to the mix, and Liz has a problem: herself. So she decides to remove the problem, permanently. But things don’t go as planned, and she’s left to make a choice: to let go or to keep fighting.
I’ll admit, there’s a lot of books similar to this one. Books about the dramas of high school and the emotional scars it brings, backstabbing, and the inner demons everyone deals with. Read one, and the rest all have the same flavor. But one thing the author does very well in this book is humanizing the characters. Yes, most characters fit the molded stereotypes, but Zhang constructs them into something more. Liz’s feelings as she walks home to an empty house, her thought process as she spreads embarrassing videos of someone to her school, and the loneliness she feels are conveyed to the reader. We see the outward personas of the characters, but there’s a hint of something else, a deeper layer to them that they painstakingly hide. There’s a disconnect with who they portray themselves as, and who they really are, and that’s something that almost everyone struggles with, and what makes this book so touching. Zhang does a masterful job showing that to the reader.
Of course, it was a tad unrealistic how influential Liz was over her peers. In my opinion, she gave herself too much credit over her actions, but it was still plausible, so it didn’t take too much away from the story. Secondary characters, like Liam, seemed a bit too forgiving and understanding, and came off as a device the author used to make Liz redeemable.
Overall, this was a good book. It touches on the age-old theme of growing up, and the struggle between other’s opinions and your opinion of yourself. The writing is easy to read and refreshing, and the characters are well-done and realistic. If you’re looking for a thoughtful contemporary novel, I would recommend this.
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