This One’s for You

Catch the Light

Amplifying raw emotion through imagery-rich prose, Sweeney (Catch the Light) explores mental health and the transition to adulthood against a contemporary music industry backdrop.

Former best friends Sydney Greenfield and Caspian Forrester originally bonded over music, a passion hidden from both Syd’s pragmatic mother, who insists she pursue a “steady job,” and Cass’s father, who’s still grieving the death of Cass’s musician mother, who died in an accident while driving home drunk after a gig. Grappling with parental pressure, post-graduation ambitions, and emotional overwhelm, the estranged friends serendipitously meet up after graduation and impulsively travel to see Cass’s mom’s bandmates, the Darlas, on tour. A single show turns into a cross-country journey during which the Darlas help the teens live out their musical dreams, but boundaries are tested as Syd and Cass dredge up their past hurts, and the duo must both reckon with their falling-out and decide whether they fit into each other’s futures. Candid internal arcs and discussions of mental health elucidate therapy-positive messaging. By rooting the characters’ internal development in their connection to art, Sweeney captures the sensory immersion of musical performance and elevates the novel’s introspective plot via lyrical alternating perspectives.

—Publisher’s Weekly

An edgy love story in which everyone seems to have a secret to hide.

—Kirkus

Nine months after the death of her father, Marigold is forced to pick up and move from her home in sunny Los Angeles all the way across the country to rural upstate New York. According to her mom, living with her aunt in a big old house in the woods is the fresh start Marigold and her little sister need. But Mary aches for the things she’s leaving behind—her best friend, her older sister, her now-long-distance boyfriend, and the senior year that felt like her only chance at making things feel normal again.
 
On top of everything, Mary has a troubling secret: she’s starting to forget her dad. The void he’s left in her memory is quickly getting filled with bonfires, house parties, and hours in the darkroom with Jesse, a fellow photographer and kindred spirit whom she can’t stop thinking about. As the beauty of Mary’s new world begins to sink in and her connection with Jesse grows stronger, she feels caught between her old life and her new one.
 
When the two finally come crashing together, Mary will have to decide what she really wants and come to terms with the ways that the loss of her dad has changed who she is. She can’t hold on to her past forever, but maybe it can be the foundation for something even brighter.

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