Does anyone ever see us for who we really are? Jo KnowlesтАЩs revelatory novel of interlocking stories peers behind the scrim as it follows nine teens and one teacher through a seemingly ordinary day.
Thanks to a bully in gym class, unpopular Nate suffers a broken fingerтАФthe middle one, splinted to flip off the world. It wonтАЩt be the last time a middle finger is raised on this day. Dreamer Claire envisions herself sitting in an artsy caf├й, filling a journal, but fate has other plans. One cheerleader dates a closeted basketball star; another questions just how, as a тАЬbig girl,тАЭ she fits in. A group of boys scam drivers for beer money without remorseтАФor so it seems. Over the course of a single day, these voices and others speak loud and clear about the complex dance that is life in a small town. They resonate in a gritty and unflinching portrayal of a day like any other, with ordinary traumas, heartbreak, and revenge. But on any given day, the line where presentation and perception meet is a tenuous one, so hard to discern. Unless, of course, one looks a little closerтАФand reads between the lines.