DEAR UNIVERSE

A teen struggles to keep her world divided into distinct halves.

At the start of the second semester of Chamomile’s senior year, her primary concerns seem to be whether she and her best friend, Abigail, can find cute prom dresses and whether or not she should wait until prom to lose her virginity to her boyfriend, Gene. Alone among her private school peers, she’s ambivalent about life post-graduation, procrastinating on completing her college applications. What she’s actually avoiding is a future without her father, who’s suffering from severe, untreated (because he won’t allow it) Parkinson’s disease, gradually losing both his physical and mental abilities. When he suffers a medical emergency that causes Cham to miss Senior Night, Cham learns a hard lesson about love and loyalty. Cham finds an unexpected friend and ally in the class misfit, Brendan, and gradually begins to unite her experiences into one coherent narrative. Cham’s voice is brisk and witty, and her truths pop out unexpectedly, although the pacing often feels off—too much of the story gets wasted on nonessentials. Cham is engaging, and her life feels real; readers who like tidy endings may find the open, true-to-life resolution frustrating. Main characters are white.

A novel with an appealing protagonist that reflects life’s messiness. (Fiction. 14-18)