Poorly written and schmaltzy, this novel had some potential but definitely didn't live up to it. Cora Bradley is trying to figure out how to put her life back together after her older brother Nate is killed in a car accident. Her mother is angry and her father is lifeless, and in the middle of their family crisis, Cora has to start high school in the same place where Nate went. Of course, she can't shake the stigma of being the girl whose brother died, and her only real refuge is the art room: the teacher is new, so she didn't know Nate, and Cora is a gifted artist. To make things more complicated, Cora starts to fall for Nate's best friend, the guy who her parents blame for Nate's death.

Weirdly enough, the character I liked the most was Nate: although he was supposedly a jerk in the year leading up to his death, he was the most completely drawn and multidimensional one of the whole novel. The rest of the characters seemed like caricatures, and the number of unnecessary adjectives and adverbs had me so frustrated I tried to abandon this novel several times. My conscience wouldn't let me, though, and although the book had some good moments, the repetition of tired cliches about feeling alone and trying to navigate the world of shifting friend groups as a teenaged girl made me dislike Cora even more. To make it all worse, it was written in the present tense, which made her sound even more grating.

Overall, I would not recommend this book to anyone who wants a good story and good writing. Sorry. :(