Sarah Carlson

Seventeen-year-old Rose Hemmersbach aspires to break out of small town Sparta, Wisconsin and achieve her artistic dreams, just like her aunt Colleen, but must face her mother's heroin addiction and its ramifications first.

Everything's Not Fine

Paige Green

Disclaimer: I received this e-book from the publisher. Thanks! All opinions are my own.

Book: Everything’s Not Fine

Author: Sarah Carlson

Book Series: Standalone

Rating: 5/5

Publication Date: May 26, 2020

Genre: YA Contemporary

Recommended Age: 16+ (drug use, addiction, near death)

Publisher: Turner

Pages: 304

Amazon Link

Synopsis: Seventeen-year-old Rose Hemmersbach aspires to break out of small town Sparta, Wisconsin and achieve her artistic dreams at Belwyn School for the Arts after she graduates. Painting is Rose’s escape from her annoying younger siblings and her family’s one rule: ignore the elephant in the room, because talking about it makes it real. That is, until the day Rose finds her mother dying on the kitchen floor of a heroin overdose. Kneeling beside her, Rose pleads with the universe to find a heartbeat. She does – but when her mother is taken to the hospital, the troubles are just beginning. Rose and her dad are left to pick up the pieces. Now all that matters are her siblings. Rose doesn’t have room to do her schoolwork, let alone pick up a paintbrush. Until Rose is forced to do the homecoming mural with Rafa, a new senior at Sparta High. Rose and Rafa don’t have an ounce of school spirit between them, but Rose discovers her brain still has room to paint. As Rose fights to hold everything together, and her dreams of the future start to slip from her grasp, she must face the question of what happens when – if – her mom comes home again. And if, deep down, if Rose even wants her to.

Review: What I think really will stick with me about this book is that this book wasn’t afraid to show the rawness about how drug abuse and addiction really is, much like Ellen Hopkins poetic books do. The book showed the before, the during, and the after and it did so without backing down. The book had amazing characters who were all wonderfully developed and the world building was marvelous. I really liked this book and I think the book can help kids and adults alike.

The only issue I had with the book was that I felt that the book was a bit too happy in the end and that the book had a slow pace.

Verdict: Worth the read!

Everything's Not Fine

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