Fadeaway
-
- $9.99
-
- $9.99
Publisher Description
When Sam's best friend Reagan dies after her heart suddenly gives out, Sam must learn to deal with her grief and ultimately discover who she is without her best friend by her side.
Fourteen-year-old Sam thinks she has all summer to hang out with her best friend, Reagan. But then her life changes forever. Sam's world, once filled with school, basketball, and Reagan, has now abruptly changed and she must learn to navigate high school on and off the court without her best friend.
But when Reagan suddenly "reappears," Sam clings to her friend's presence, even as it hurts rather than helps her grief. Can Sam learn to accept herself without her other half? This authentic, powerful story of friendship, grief, and discovering yourself is a can't-miss debut novel from Maura Ellen Stokes.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
As a rising ninth grader, Sam expects to dominate the high school basketball courts with her best friend, Reagan. Then Reagan suffers fatal heart failure, sending Sam into a major depression. Stokes's uneven debut features a sympathetic protagonist and a likeable cast of supporting characters, including Sam's supportive brothers; her health-food nut mother and donut-sneaking father; her potential romantic interest and golf buddy, "Goth Boy" Kevin; and Reagan, who reappears only to Sam and engages her in affectionate, "morbid and ghoulish" banter. Sam's grief, her search to discover her identity after being part of an inseparable twosome, and her family and friends' frustration at not being able to help ring true. While some of the story's conflicts, such as an ongoing power struggle with her algebra teacher, feel forced, this novel offers an affecting portrait of a loving friendship that outlasts death. Ages 10 14.