THE EASY PART OF IMPOSSIBLE

How do you stand up to abuse from the person who’s always encouraged you to be your best?

Ria is a diver. She’s spent years honing her technique with her longtime coach, Benny, but when she has to withdraw from a critical competition, Benny pulls her from the team. Now, at the start of her senior year and with no contingency plan, Ria feels like she has nothing. Aimless in her Virginia town, she literally runs into childhood friend Cotton, who introduces her to his passion—mapping unexplored local caves. The two already have a shared history from their elementary school special education classes; Ria has ADHD while Cotton shows autistic behaviors and has trauma from the long-ago, unresolved disappearance of his little sister. Their mutual romance is sweet, complicated, painful, and honest—like any other. Ria knows fear from diving, but she must come to terms with Benny’s abuse and find the strength to overcome this other fear. The text explores this sensitively, revealing the way student athletes can feel as if they belong to their coaches as well as the way victims can become trapped by abusers. Readers hear a lot about Benny, but the scenes in which he and Ria are together are scarce, making their relationship more implied than realized until later in the story. Whiteness is assumed as the norm for the cast.

Dives into difficult, legitimate issues with great form.