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Review: We Are Okay by Nina LaCour

Title: We Are Okay
Author: Nina LaCour
Year Published: 2017


Genre: YA fiction
Pages: 234
Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Location (my 2017 Google Reading map)USA (NY)

FTC Disclosure: I bought this book with my own money


Summary (from the inside flap of the book): Marin hasn't spoken to anyone from her old life since the days she left everything behind. No one knows the truth about those final weeks. Not even her best friends, Mabel. But even thousands of miles away from the California coast, at college in New York, Marin still feels the pull of life and tragedy she's tried to outrun. Now, months later, alone in an emptied dorm for winter break, Marin waits. Mabel is coming to visit, and Marin will be forced to face everything that's been left unsaid and finally confront the loneliness that has made a home in her heart.

Review: I have really enjoyed the other Nina LaCour books that I've read: Hold Still and the Disenchantments so when I started seeing reviews of this book I was excited. I was not prepared the for the emotional ride that this book took me on.

Marin (pronounced like the CA county) is at college in New York and isn't communicating with her best friend, Mabel. It takes a long time for us to find out what happened, but that is the heart of the story. It isn't one event or one specific thing that set off Marin's departure from her old life, but rather a series of events over a life time that finally come crashing down around her. 

Marin's emotional state is so fragile and done so well. She takes two steps forward and one step back as she and Mabel try to bring her back to the living, so to speak. I could feel Marin's pain, Mabel's wanting to help her, and the dance they were doing to slowly get to a point where Marin might be okay. This is a story of friendship, family, heartache, bravery, confidence, and love. I was overwhelmed in the last 50 pages of this book with emotion as it all came to a head and the details of Marin's experiences came out. Sometimes family is hard and this story does it so well. 

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