Untethered

Finished October 3
Untethered by Julie Lawson Timmer

This novel begins just after the death of Bradley Hawthorne, husband of Char and father of Allie. Char gave up a fulfilling career as a journalism professor in Washington, D.C. when she met Bradley, moving to small town Michigan. Allie has been living most of the year with Bradley and Char, with brief visits to her mother Lindy in California. Now Char realizes that she has no legal parental rights with Allie, despite being one of her primary parents. Char has always been careful not to tread into Lindy's role as mother, and she doesn't know what to do to keep Allie living with her.
Allie takes seriously a role she herself stepped into as a tutor to a younger, troubled girl, Morgan. She meets Morgan formally once a week for sessions, but also has taken on the role of big sister to the girl. Morgan's parents are also dealing with some health issues for their younger child, Stevie.
As Char and Allie walk carefully into their new roles with each other, they are waiting for Lindy to make a definitive move. With Morgan's problems escalating, a move by Morgan's parents creates a crisis for Allie and Char, once that will have lasting changes to their lives.
This is a story today's complex families, with step parents, foster parents, adoptive parents, and friends and other family members complicating the family dynamic. When things are going well, everyone gets along, but when things aren't going well, power and feelings take on deciding roles that may not always look out for the best interests of all family members.
This is a story of families in all their complexity, with the mixed up feelings that go along with that. We are all human and some of us become stronger with adversity. Char and Allie are ones that become stronger, but it takes them awhile to figure out their new relationship and realize all they have to lose.

Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands

Finished April 27
Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands by Chris Bohjalian, read by Grace Blewer

This novel is told by a young woman looking back at her recent past, Emily Shepard is a homeless teenager struggling to survive after her life has fallen apart. A nuclear powerplant in Vermont had a reactor go into meltdown and a large area of the state had to be evacuated, with many people losing their homes, their jobs, and many plant workers dying. Emily tells her story in fits and starts, jumping from the June that the meltdown occurred to the next spring when things completely fall apart for her. Part of Emily's situation is that her father was the chief engineer at the plant, and her mother was the communications representative. She feels that she must hide her identity as people are angry with her when they find out who her parents were.
Long before the meltdown, Emily was fascinated with her poet namesake Emily Dickinson, knowing many of her poems by heart, and writing her own poetry. Emily was a bit of a rebellious teenager, not doing as well in school as she could have, engaging in some risky behaviour and criticizing her parents for their own weaknesses. But she was still not fully an adult and her innocence shows even as she loses it. Among her many losses is that of her beloved dog Maggie, who was left in the house during the sudden evacuation, and whose unknown fate haunts Emily.
When she comes across Cameron, a young boy fleeing from a series of bad foster homes, she takes him under her wing, trying to convince him to get more help than she can offer, but also protecting him as much as she is able. In some ways, his presence also keeps her alive.
Emily struggles with many of the issues homeless teens struggling with self-hatred, depression, and general anxiety struggle with. She engages in far riskier behaviour than she would ever have thought herself capable of, but also finds herself reaching out to others as she tries to survive any way she can.
Emily is strong, but also overwhelmed by her circumstances. As she leads us through her story, referring back to events in her life before the meltdown, we see her loneliness, her dreams, and her regrets.
The interview with the author and narrator included here added another element to the story. Grace is Chris's daughter and the inspiration for some of the characteristics of Emily, as well as the source for some of the language particular to teens.

Scars

Finished April 28
Scars by Cheryl Rainfield

This young adult novel deals with a couple of difficult themes, cutting and child sexual abuse. The main character, Kendra, only recently became aware of the past sexual abuse she suffered, as the repressed memories began to surface. The violent threats of her abuser still echo inside her head whenever she tries to dig deeper into those memories to find clues to the identity of her abuser. When this voice become too loud and too terrifying, the only way she can calm herself and retreat from those memories is to cut herself.
Kendra is working with a therapist that she has come to trust and she finds comfort when visiting a family friend, Sandy. Another source of comfort for her is her art. Painting helps her let out her feelings in a safe way, but her mother's own artistic ability and opinions on Kendra's art have led her to keep her parents unaware of the paintings she is still creating.
Kendra has had the feeling lately that she is being followed, and she is sure the person following her is her abuser. But when he starts leaving messages for her she becomes even more wary. When a new school friend Meghan starts to play a larger role in her life, Kendra has more strength to face the issues in her life and continue to work to uncover those memories that will lead to the identification of her abuser. But are the threats she is getting from him real, and is she in more danger than ever now?
A difficult read, but a sympathetic character dealt with in real terms. A good addition to any young adult collection.