MEET ME IN THE MIDDLE

A young woman grapples with trying to move forward in her life after her best friend’s accident.

Eighteen-year-old Eden is taking a gap year after finishing high school, waitressing and sharing a downtown Toronto apartment with a roommate, instead of the original plan: going to university and living with her best friend, Katie. Instead, Katie is lying in the hospital in a coma after a car accident. Truman, Katie’s older brother, has just returned from Montreal after disappearing for two months to attend an art workshop that was more a means of coping with his sister’s state than about developing his art. The night of Katie’s accident, Eden and Truman were sharing their first kiss, something they haven’t discussed, and they’ve been doing their best to avoid each other. Now, the city seems determined to connect the two as their paths continue to cross. In this novel told in their alternating points of view, each feels responsible for Katie’s accident. Eden’s grief still contains a painful element of hope; it feels palpable as she navigates figuring out who she is when so much of her identity was wrapped up in her friendship with Katie. While Truman’s chapters don’t carry the same emotional depth and can feel bloated, they do offer moments of levity that help round out the painful and confusing circumstances. Most characters read as White.

A compelling look at complicated grief.