The Chance You Won't Return
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
When your mom thinks she’s Amelia Earhart, navigating high school, first love, and family secrets is like flying solo without a map. Driver’s ed and a first crush should be what Alex Winchester is stressed out about in high school — and she is. But what’s really on her mind is her mother. Why is she dressing in Dad’s baggy khaki pants with a silk scarf around her neck? What is she planning when she pores over maps in the middle of the night? When did she stop being Mom and start being Amelia Earhart? Alex tries to keep her budding love life apart from the growing disaster at home as her mother sinks further into her delusions. But there are those nights, when everyone else is asleep, when it’s easier to confide in Amelia than it ever was to Mom. Now, as Amelia’s flight plans become more intense, Alex is increasingly worried that Amelia is planning her final flight — the flight from which she never returns. What could possibly be driving Mom’s delusions, and how far will they take her?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Cardi's candid and multilayered debut, high school junior Alex Winchester already has a full plate when her mother begins to believe she is Amelia Earhart, writing letters to an imaginary family, studying maps, and building makeshift aeronautical devices for her "around-the-world tour." Overwhelmed by the transformation, which appears to have been sparked by the death of Alex's baby sister, Alex's father mismanages the situation and makes Alex responsible for sheltering her two younger siblings. With her own anxiety mounting, Alex begins to play into her mother's fantasy world, recognizing the immense hold that it has taken on her mother and believing that it may be the only means through which to reach her. Alex's crush on a senior provides some brightness, but it's eclipsed by her fear that he'll discover the truth about her home life. Alex's voice is caustic, honest, and studded with humor. Cardi weaves elegant metaphors and incisive dialogue throughout her chapters, concluding with a wrenching sentiment about the necessity of sometimes allowing a lost loved one to find her own way home. Ages 12 up.
