Y a novel by Marjorie Celona

A foster child who has been shuffled through the system after being abandoned at the YMCA as a baby wonders about her birth family and the reasons she was given up, questions that lead to the tragic story of her flawed and desperate mother.

There are times that I think it might be a good idea to have warning labels on teen books. When I was an impressionable teen (are there any other kind?) I found myself reading The Bell Jar, a book that spiraled me into a six-month-long depression. (I blame Bell Jar, in any case, for my senior year angst...it certainly didn't generate any happy thoughts.)

This is, then, a book that could use a warning label. On a scale of Bleak to Grim to Mind-Numbingly Depressing, this book would fall far to the right.

“It takes awhile to understand this,” Vaughn says to me, “but there's enough room in a life for failure and loss.” (315)

I think this will be a hit this fall when it releases. Loved the gritty nature of the story. Fell in love with the misfit cast of characters.

Very close to a four-star book, actually, but I'm not feeling generous today :) I was completely swept up in the tragedy of Shannon's early life as she bounces between foster homes and suffers the indignity of not knowing who she is. Celona emphasizes the importance of family in creating identity, but Shannon cannot move forward until she understands her past. Things disintegrated for me towards the middle of the book, as Shannon struggles through adolescence. and though I appreciated the empathy and kindness of strangers towards the end of the novel, it felt a bit forced. And even though she forms the structure Y, Shannon's mom, Yula, didn't seem fully realized.