Katherine Paterson

Esau have I hated . . . Sara Louise Bradshaw is sick and tired of her beautiful twin Caroline. Ever since they were born, Caroline has been the pretty one, the talented one, the better sister. Even now, Caroline seems to take everything: Louise's friends, their parents' love, her dreams for the future. For once in her life, Louise wants to be the special one. But in order to do that, she must first figure out who she is . . . and find a way to make a place for herself outside her sister's shadow.

Jacob Have I Loved

Lizzy Jensen

Laura Mauler

I read this book as a kid and it really got inside my head. It actually still bubbles up in my memory from time to time, probably because the issues of belonging and fitting in that first drew me to the book are ones that still plague me today.

I’ve read this book countless times but for some reason this read-through was more meaningful than any of them ever have been. I think I finally grasp why I love Sara Louise so much. Katherine Patterson wrote her as the most realistic bitter, sad, angry, self-hating teenage girl that I have ever read. This is a coming of age novel, yes, but it’s a real one. There is no sunshine and cute sidekick friend or hope of a better life. There’s just Wheeze. Wheeze and her self hatred and self consciousness that anyone who has ever been a teenage girl is all too familiar with. I’ve read many reviews of people disliking this book because Louise was such an insufferable character, but reader: THAT IS THE POINT. She is grumpy and sad and blinded to how much her family and her people love her. I audibly gasped while reading the last few chapters when it clicked for me that Sara Louise’s grandmother was written to be a shadow of her future if she did not learn to love herself. Louise hated her grandmother because her grandmother hated herself and took that out on everyone around her. The final few chapters were breathtaking for me because I finally saw Louise take control of her own life. This is the most lovely, honest, and heart wrenching coming of age novel I’ve ever read. I need Greta Gerwig to make a movie adaptation IMMEDIATELY.

Martha F.

Macy Johnson

Traci Wilbanks

renee badenoch

Feeling deprived all her life of schooling, friends, her mother, and even her name by her twin sister, Louise finally begins to find her identity.

Jacob Have I Loved

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