Sara Zarr

While living very different lives on opposite coasts, seventeen-year-old Elizabeth and eighteen-year-old Lauren become acquainted by email the summer before they begin rooming together as freshmen at UC-Berkeley.

After losing her soul mate, Cameron, when they were nine, Jennifer, now seventeen, transformed herself from the unpopular fat girl into the beautiful and popular Jenna, but Cameron's unexpected return dredges up memories that cause both social and emotional turmoil.

As the tragedy of a missing girl unfolds in her small town, fifteen-year-old Samara, who feels emotionally abandoned by her parents, begins to question her faith.

Kyle Barker thought his family was happy. When he learns that his mother has been having an affair, and his father has been living with the secret, his reality is altered. Kyle withdraws from life, and the only person he can talk to (well, text to) is his cousin Emily. But Kyle's parents want him to keep this secret from the rest of the family until after what might be their last big summer reunion. Kyle feels the walls of his relationships closing...

Gem has never known what it is to have security. She's never known an adult she can truly rely on. But the one constant in her life has been Dixie. Gem grew up taking care of her sister when no one else could: not their mother, whose issues make it hard for her to keep food on the table, and definitely not their father, whose intermittent presence is the only thing worse than his frequent absence. Even as Gem and Dixie have grown apart, they've always...

Thirty-one young adult authors share their own struggles with mental illness, ranging from such topics as neurodiversity and addiction to OCD and PTSD.