a home in her heart

"You go through life thinking there’s so much you need. . . . Until you leave with only your phone, your wallet, and a picture of your mother."

Marin is spending her winter break alone in her dorm room after finishing her first semester of college, because she doesn’t have a home to go back to.

From GoodReads:

Marin hasn’t spoken to anyone from her old life since the day she left everything behind. No one knows the truth about those final weeks. Not even her best friend, Mabel. But even thousands of miles away from the California coast, at college in New York, Marin still feels the pull of the life and tragedy she’s tried to outrun. Now, months later, alone in an emptied dorm for winter break, Marin waits. Mabel is coming to visit, and Marin will be forced to face everything that’s been left unsaid and finally confront the loneliness that has made a home in her heart.

The story is sparsely written and beautiful. It alternates between flashbacks and the present, so we gradually learn the truth about what happened in those weeks before Marin left California.

I met Nina LaCour at YALSA where she talked about We Are Okay. She had thought it would be a sweet remembrance of her grandfather who had passed away, but it ended up being so much more. Written during a time of great upheaval and disillusionment in her life... there was huge contrast between her new family filled with love and hope, and the grief of her past.

This is a wonderful book of new beginnings, grief, uncertainty, solitude, relationships, family and love. Get it for the teens you know who have experienced change. Get this book for all the teens you know.