Hold Still
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4.8 • 4 Ratings
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
A beautiful new edition of the stunning debut novel by Nina LaCour, award-winning author of We Are Okay
“Hold Still may be the truest depiction of the aching, gaping hole left in the wake of a suicide that I’ve ever read. A haunting and hopeful book about loss, love, and redemption.” – Gayle Forman, #1 bestselling author of If I Stay and I Have Lost My Way
That night Ingrid told Caitlin, I’ll go wherever you go. But by dawn Ingrid, and her promise, were gone.
Ingrid’s suicide immobilizes Caitlin, leaving her unsure of her place in a new life she hardly recognizes. A life without the art, the laughter, the music, and the joy that she shared with her best friend.... But Ingrid left something behind. In words and drawings, Ingrid documented a painful farewell in her journal. Journeying through Ingrid’s final days, Caitlin fights back through unspeakable loss to find renewed hope.
Hold Still is the indelible debut that launched Nina LaCour, the award-winning author of We Are Okay. LaCour’s breakthrough novel brings the changing seasons of Caitlin’s first year without Ingrid to the page with indelible emotion and honesty.
Includes an all-new essay from the author to commemorate 10 years in print!
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
LaCour makes an impressive debut with an emotionally charged young adult novel about friendship and loss. Caitlin begins her junior year in high school bitter and stunned over the recent suicide of her best friend Ingrid, a talented photographer and artist. Afraid to risk new friendships and unable to continue her own artistic endeavors, Caitlin finds herself in a state of paralysis, wrestling with questions that may remain unanswered. Then she discovers Ingrid's journal, a record of her thoughts during her final days, and reasons for her tragic, perhaps inevitable fate begin to come to light. What is most remarkable about LaCour's tale is her ability to make the presence of an absent character so deeply felt. The entries and pictures in Ingrid's journal vibrate with feeling and provide insight into the pain of chronic depression ("the sun stopped shining for me is all. the whole story is: i am sad. i am sad all the time and the sadness is so heavy that I can't get away from it"). Ingrid's secrets are excruciating to discover, but the ample evidence of her creative force makes it clear that her life had meaning. Ages 14 up.