SOLVED. Coming of age mother-daughter novel dealing with addiction, mother is fighting to help daughter get help with addiction. [s]

[Christie]

I’m trying to remember the title of a book I read awhile ago. I think it was 2017 when I read it. It was a novel, not too long, I think set in California. It was kind of a mother-daughter coming of age story, told from the mom’s perspective. The daughter’s name was Rose and she was a teenager struggling with addiction and trying to hide it from her mother and the mother is trying to get her daughter better. Ends in the Midwest. And this is a weird detail that just came back to me while I wrote: one of the spots in the book’s town where all the teenagers hang out is called the Parkade. Thanks for any leads!

[arratavy]

Imperfect Birds by Anne Lamott?

Publishers Weekly:
Rosie Ferguson, the young heroine of Lamott’s Rosie and Crooked Little Heart , almost succumbs to the drug culture in this unsparing look at teenagers and parents who walk the tightrope between all-encompassing love and impotent fury. The former tennis star is now a straight-A high school senior, living with her mother, Elizabeth, and stepfather, James, in Marin County. Elizabeth, still susceptible to emotional breakdowns and fighting lapses into alcoholism, is acutely aware of Rosie’s vulnerability, and she and James are vigilant in watching Rosie’s behavior, knowing, as everyone does, that drug deals go down in the town’s central square, and that the kids are drinking, sexually active, and aligned against their parents. Lamott captures this gestalt with her distinctive mixture of warmth, humor, and sensitivity to volatile emotional equilibrium, going laser-sharp into teen mindsets: the craving for secrecy and excitement, the thrill of flaunting the law and parental rules. Eventually forced to confront Rosie’s peril and its potentially marriage-destroying power, Elizabeth and James take decisive action and risk their family. Straddling a line between heartwarming and heartbreaking, this novel is Lamott at her most witty, observant, and psychologically astute.

[Kris]

Christie, I deleted your duplicate threads. One thread per book request, please. You can edit a thread to make corrections using the full desktop website - not the mobile website or app.

[Christie]

Yes! That is it. Thank you arratavy! And Kris, I didn’t realize I’d posted more than once - so sorry.

[Kris]

No worries. Glad you found your book, Christie.