WHAT SHE MISSED

Grief, severe anxiety, and an abundance of negative self-talk make for a narrator who is at odds with herself—and who’s missing a lot of what’s going on around her.

Sixteen-year-old painter Ebony Jones couldn’t bring herself to complete a self-portrait assignment at her old school before her parents uprooted her whole life and moved her to Alula Lake, a historically Black seaside town in Texas where she spent summers as a child. She hasn’t been back since her grandmother Gigi’s passing. Now, she’s struggling with the ways she sees herself, both as an artist and as a person, the begrudged change in scenery, the loss of her friend group, and constant reminders of Gigi, all of which exacerbate her issues, leading to Ebony’s quickly spiraling into self-destructive habits even as her parents and a childhood best friend try hard to reach her. Brief passages from the perspective of an omniscient narrator interspersed between Ebony’s first-person chapters give readers necessary insights into things Ebony’s unable to notice or deeply unwilling to accept. Without this awareness, she can’t help but tank her relationships and find herself in embarrassing and dangerous situations. It’s the alternative perspective that clues the reader in to the long journey ahead, as even the closing honesty and reconciliations will not resolve some of her deeper issues. She is a protagonist who is simultaneously deeply frustrating and relatable, and by the end she’s at least able to paint herself more clearly.

Heartbreakingly well executed.