Year 18

"Year 18" follows 18-year-old Rebecca Whitmore through her senior year of high school, where she struggles with her past and fights to find hope for her future. To combat her depression and loneliness, she forms an imaginary friendship with fictional characters she created for a school project, beginning a punishing battle between her idealized inner world and the real world outside.



About the Author



Melissa Elmali is a recent graduate of UMass Amherst that currently resides in Groton, MA. She learned to read and write at age 3 and immediately developed a love of writing. "Year 18" is her first novel, which she hopes will help end the stigma around mental illness, a topic she studied heavily in college. Along with creative writing, she also enjoys singing, playing the piano, video games, and reviewing movies on YouTube.