Zoe Letting Go
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4.6 • 36 Ratings
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- $6.99
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
“When the truth about her past is disclosed…the effect works like gangbusters.”
–New York Times Book Review
A girl's letters to her best friend reveal two lives derailed by anorexia in this haunting debut that's Laurie Halse Anderson's Wintergirls meets The Sixth Sense.
Zoe knows she doesn’t belong in a hospital—so why is she in one?
Twin Birch isn’t just any hospital. It’s a strange mansion populated by unnerving staff and glassy-eyed patients. It’s a place for girls with serious problems; skinny, spindly girls with eating disorders who have a penchant for harming themselves.
Zoe isn’t like them. And she can’t figure out why she was sent here. Writing letters to her best friend Elise keep her sane, grounded in the memories of her past—but mired in them, too. Elise never writes back.
Zoe is lost without her, unsure of how to navigate tenuous new friendships and bizarre rules without Elise by her side. But as her letters intertwine with journal entries chronicling her mysterious life at Twin Birch, another narrative unfolds. The hidden story of a complicated friendship; of the choices we make, the truths we tell others, and the lies we tell ourselves. The story of a friendship that has the potential to both save—and damage beyond repair. And Zoe finds she must confront the truth about her past once and for all, before she can finally let go.
Nora Price’s debut young adult book is a heart-wrenching meditation on the bonds of friendship with a gripping psychological twist.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Sixteen-year-old Zoe Propp can't fathom why her mother dropped her at the Twin Birch hospital, an eerie mansion in the woods. Not long before, Zoe was free to roam the streets of Brooklyn with her gorgeous friend Elise. Now she's surrounded by six sickly girls and immersed in a strict, highly supervised program, which includes "Therapy" (meetings with a psychologist), "Activity" (cooking and gardening), "Intake" (mandatory meals), and "Group Downtime" (socializing with the other patients). Zoe compulsively logs day-to-day events: everything from meals and recipes to her body's changes and the girls' mini-dramas. Although Zoe's mysterious roommate, Caroline (who expresses suspicion about Zoe's presence), is persuasively developed, the other girls are portrayed comparatively thinly. Most moving are Zoe's letters to Elise, which slowly reveal the nature of their codependent friendship and why Zoe is at Twin Birch. While Price's debut skillfully depicts obsession and the mentality behind eating disorders, not all readers will have the patience for Zoe's repetitive and detailed writing or her unreliable narration, as her moments of clarity add up to a troubling truth. Ages 12 up.
