N. Griffin

 
Overview

Wracked with guilt due to a horrific accident that maimed her best friend two years earlier, sixteen-year-old Bett’s life is a series of pluses and minuses. But when the pluses start to outweigh the minuses, Bett is forced to confront her self-harming behavior in this powerful novel about self-forgiveness.

Two years ago, Bett was badass. Fearless, feisty, athletic; the type of person who’d bike down a mountain ledge just for the thrill of it. Give her a dare and she’d get it done, no question. But then she dared a friend, and instead of a thrill came horror and guilt.

Now Bett divides her life into Pluses and Minuses. Pluses are anything that make her feel good, things she doesn’t—nope, no way, no how—deserve. Minuses are punishments she doles out to herself—literally, in the form of binge eating—when a Plus can’t be avoided. Now, Bett is extremely overweight, depressed, and the opposite of badass. Which makes her happy. But is that a Plus? Bett’s system is beginning to crack, and revelations of that prank-gone-wrong are threatening to come out.

Just Wreck It All is a blaze of a novel about guilt and self-harm that explores how easy it is to punish ourselves, and just how difficult it is to find the power to forgive ourselves.

 
Overview

What happens when everything you’ve got to give isn’t enough to save someone you love? This transformative portrayal of “injustice, frustration, and rage is wrenching and difficult to forget” (Publishers Weekly, starred review).

It’s Maine. It’s winter. And it’s FREEZING STINKIN’ COLD! Dinah is wildly worried about her best friend, Skint. He won’t wear a coat. Refuses to wear a coat. It’s twelve degrees out, and he won’t wear a coat. So Dinah’s going to figure out how to help. That’s what Dinah does—she helps. But she’s too busy trying to help to notice that sometimes, she’s doing more harm than good. Seeing the trees instead of the forest? That’s Dinah.

And Skint isn’t going to be the one to tell her. He’s got his own problems. He’s worried about a little boy whose dad won’t let him visit his mom. He’s worried about an elderly couple in a too-cold house down the street.

But the wedge between what drives Dinah and what concerns Skint is wide enough for a big old slab of ice. Because Skint’s own father is in trouble. Because Skint’s mother refuses to ask for help even though she’s at her breaking point. And because Dinah might just decide to…help. She thinks she’s cracking through a sheet of ice, but what’s actually there is an entire iceberg.

 
Overview

For forever, Didi has had to be the best at anything her father demanded of her—the fastest runner, the champion of chess tournaments, able to take down a deer with a bow and arrow at a dead sprint. If she isn't, he takes away food. Clothes. His "love." Though he does love her—he says he does—it's why he pushes her. To be ready. Prepared. For anything. Ready to . . .

Didi is terrified of what he may one day ask her to do . . .

But Didi might be more prepared than her father ever expects.

As powerful as Speak, Educated, and The Glass Castle, this tour de force seems nearly impossible to believe, if it weren't already drawn from a true story—the author's own.