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Can a place be your home if you don’t feel like you belong there?

Fourteen-year-old Kayla is a dark-skinned girl from Trinidad. After being hospitalized following struggles with mental illness—much to her mother’s shame and disappointment—Kayla is sent to spend the summer in Canada with her Aunty Jillian and Jillian’s partner, Julie. She now has to come to terms with and get treatment for her depression and anxiety, all while adjusting to living somewhere so different from the place she has known since birth—from the weather to the more tolerant culture. She sticks out in Edmonton and yet it is here that she has the room to be herself and to try and manage her mental health as best as she can. Allen-Agostini uses frank yet gentle prose to discuss serious topics like mental illness, complex familial dynamics, poverty, violence, and latent as well as blatant homophobia in this novel featuring a diverse cast of characters that focuses on a teen trying to cope with the harsh circumstances she’s been dealt in life. With some chapters written as diary entries detailing Kayla’s concerns, which range from body image and self-esteem to how to handle a crush, the story and voice feel authentic. This novel is sure to evoke sympathy and compassion in readers.

A hopeful story about finding one’s place and the sometimes-difficult journey to self-acceptance.