THE SKY ALWAYS HEARS ME AND THE HILLS DON’T MIND

Sixteen-year-old Morgan lives in central Nebraska, a fact that, along with PMS and life in general, drives her to the hills to scream her lungs out, usually something along the lines of “DIE ASSHOLE DIE.” She has a “dumb jock” boyfriend, whose penis she compares unfavorably to those in Playgirl and who bores her… sexually and otherwise. Morgan also has a crush on the assistant manager at the grocery store where she works and was recently kissed by Tessa, the popular girl who lives next door—and she kissed her back. Throw in an alcoholic father, a long-suffering stepmom and a big family secret for a dog’s breakfast of angst. Morgan, an aspiring author, takes comfort in writing fortune-cookie messages, escape fantasies and her hip, flawed grandmother who listens almost as well as the hills do. Morgan is a well-drawn character and her funny, frank, profane-but-literate first-person voice rings true and strong. Her emotional landscape is all shades of gray, and teens might well find it liberating to meet a character who can, in the end, take on life’s messiness and forgive it. (Fiction. 14 & up)