Kimberly Olson Fakih

This was just terrific—a coming of age story from the midwestern '70s, dark and funny and sweet, very well done. The stories we tell each other, the stories we tell ourselves, the stories we don't tell anyone, all set against a very evocative suburbia of oblivious parents and the discomforts of middle school. Fakih's got a very good touch here, moving between lightness and humor and really visceral hurts, and I both laughed out loud and sobbed at moments.