The Summer of Broken Rules is an amazing, heartfelt, and charming novel that blends romance, grief, and family with the beauty of a summer wedding on Martha’s Vineyard. The story is about 18-year-old Meredith Fox, who returns to the island for the first time after the death of her older sister, Claire. The week-long event is about her cousin’s wedding, but the family’s annual tradition of playing a competitive game of Assassin—a playful water-gun competition—adds excitement, mischief, and emotion.
The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World is a psychological fiction novel written by Laura Imai Messina. This book follows the story of Yui, who lost both her mother and her daughter to a tsunami in 2011. The death of her mother and daughter caused Yui to feel immense grief. She decides to find a way to cope with her grief and she does this by visiting a disconnected phone booth. After hearing about the phone booth she begins the journey to it. During her journey she meets a widowed husband named Takeshi.
Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, is a classic work of literature almost as well-known as Shakespeare’s other great work Romeo and Juliet. While many have heard of it, fewer know its true depth. Known as Shakespeare’s masterpiece, Hamlet is a complex play about revenge, madness, and love that causes the reader to question what they would do in the characters’ circumstances.
The Secret Year is a realistic fiction young adult novel that follows Colt through his junior year of high school. Labor day weekend, he lost the secret love of his life in a car accident. Although they were in love, no one was allowed to know. He was from the flats, and she was from one of the huge houses up on Black Mountain. Throughout his junior year, Colt faces his grief in secret, reading her journal entries written about their time together, allowing him to relive the best year of his life, the one with Julia.
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is one of the most powerful stories that I have read. Taking place during the Holocaust, this book’s depth is immediately apparent (as is any story in the face of such a great tragedy.) The story centers around a girl named Liesel, who loses her family at the novel’s opening, and thus finds herself in the care of the Huberman family. The Huberman family provides Liesel with a new warmth that had been lacking previously in her life–they represent, for her, a true family.
Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds is a fast-paced novel in verse about grief, revenge and tough choices. It follows Will, a teenager whose brother was killed. Following the neighborhood’s unspoken rules: no crying, no snitching and getting revenge, Will grabs a gun and heads to settle the score. During an intense elevator ride, Will meets the ghosts of people from his past, each sharing their own tragic stories. As he goes down each floor, he’s forced to question whether revenge is the right path.
This book is about a girl named Sarah, who lost her mom six months before the start of the book. Since her death, she has been put with the duties of caring for her younger brother and now her dad, who has fallen apart because of the death of his wife. Sarah has to do it all from the bills, school, food and everything else a parent normally does. She meets a boy she likes, but she is too busy with everything else to have another person in her life. But, one art project changes her perspective on everything.
After her parents' tragic death, 16-year-old Jackie Howard moves from New York to Colorado to live with her mother's family, the Walter Boys - four brothers (Matt, Jake, Alex, and Greg) and their father. As Jackie navigates her new life, she faces cultural shock, sibling rivalry, and blossoming romances, particularly with Alex, the charming and sensitive brother. Amidst the chaos and emotional struggles, Jackie finds solace in her growing relationships with the Walter Boys and discovers a new sense of belonging, identity, and love.
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt is a book about a young boy named Theodore Decker, who is dealing with the grief of losing his mother in a sudden terrorist attack in a museum that his mom and him went to go see. During the terrorist attack that killed his mom, he steals a painting called The Goldfinch, which later becomes the only thing he has left of his mother. Once he moves in with his mother’s friends, the Barbour’s, he meets a bad influence, named Boris. He starts to fall down a bad path.
Finny has always loved Autumn. He thinks she knows of his adoration, but she does not. When the boundaries holding them back finally break, they only have one night together before tragedy strikes. After a car accident that leaves Finny dead, Autumn is left to grieve her lover and navigate pregnancy without the one person that got her through anything. As Finny’s baby continues to grow, Autumn learns to reach out and surround herself with people that carry pieces of Finny within their stories.
