Sadie puts on her Ray Ban knock-offs and climbs into Old Charlotte. "To seek and find? asks George. Putting her truck into gear they begin. George tells her stories and sings the parts of Beatle songs he can remember. They are so comfortable together. The shared burger, the milk shake the art museum, the zoo. It's perfect. "I will never love anyone this much," Sadie thinks to herself. That's when she hits the tree and the next thing she knows is she's heading to the emergency room and asking the question no one is answering for her, "Where is George?"
For the next two weeks Sadie is going to have to decide what she is willing to let others see and finally, what she is willing to see about herself. Inside her head, stories are protecting her from the pain and trauma of the past and now of the present. Can she find a way to make her real life as good as the one she escapes to inside her head ...with George?
Everyone of us has our defenses that help us cope and survive and comfort ourselves especially when times are too much for us and life just hurts too much for us to stay present. This is a brilliant exploration and reveal of what it feels like to pretend, to create your own safe place in your own head. It's also a poignant and powerful journey to the moment when you have to decide if you are going to stay in your cocoon or finally accept reality and come up to the surface where the pain might wait but where the wonderful of life waits...even for you.
This is a courageous, incredibly honest gift of a story that just might reach out a hand to someone else who is hoping she or he can make the choice to set George free.
288 pages 978-1524766870 Ages 14 and up
Recommended by: Barb Langridge, abookandahug.com
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An intoxicating debut novel that will leave you questioning what is real and why we escape into fantasy, perfect for fans of Belzhar by Meg Wolitzer and Falling into Place by Amy Zhang.
Secrets are con artists: they trick you into letting them out.
Sadie loves her rocker boyfriend Henry and her running partner and best friend Lucie, but no one can measure up to her truest love and hero, the dazzling and passionate George. George, her secret.
When something goes wrong and Sadie is taken to the hospital calling out for George, her hidden life may be exposed. Now she must confront the truth of the past, and protect a world she is terrified to lose.--from the publisher