Being GiLBerT

How can you be yourself when everyone hates who you are?

Piper has never fit anywhere--not at home, not at school, not even in her own body. Fourteen, awkward, and friendless, she enters high school hoping her older sister Anna might throw her a lifeline. Instead, she's told to fend for herself.

So Piper makes friends with the very people Anna warned her to stay away from--a group of black-clad misfits who embrace the unconventional. They open her eyes by discussing things she never gave a second thought about--politics, religion, and even gender. With these companions, Piper finally feels like she belongs.

But belonging can be complicated.

As her life spirals through grief, fractured family ties, and the intoxicating pull of people who promise understanding, Piper begins to rethink all the wisdom she thought she gained. Is she really finding her true self, or drifting further from it? Piper wants to keep her friends, but at what cost?

A raw, unsettling coming-of-age story about conformity, loneliness, and the courage it takes to reclaim your own voice.