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Gem and Dixie | November 3, 2017

by Sara Zarr (HarperCollins Children's Books/Balzer + Bray)

I came to this novel by chance, when the audio version happened to be available in my library catalog and I needed a good weekend read. Honestly, I was going in blind—I knew the cover was striking, but I hadn’t read anything by Sara Zarr before (I know!) or checked out any of the reviews beforehand, so I didn’t have many expectations. Basically, I had no idea how hard I was going to fall for this novel. (Spoiler: SO hard.)

Sisters Gem and Dixie deal with the stress of their home life in very different ways and often find themselves at odds. Gem has always taken care of younger sister Dixie, but she doesn’t quite know how to take care of herself. After their absent dad returns home and throws their dysfunctional family further out of whack, Gem accidentally stumbles upon something that might finally allow her to escape her current circumstances. Except Dixie comes along, too, and this time Gem’s not sure she can save both of them.

Sara Zarr’s writing is searing. This is easily one of the best sister stories I’ve ever read; she really gets into all those nooks and crannies of sibling relationships and isn’t afraid to expose all the frustrations and darker nuances of their complicated family dynamics. I especially appreciated the raw, authentic depiction of a lower-class family and the exploration of just how dire a situation needs to be (financially, emotionally, etc.) to be considered “bad.”  Worth mentioning that the audio narrator, Julia Whelan, does a phenomenal job of bringing these characters to life. In all, this is a fierce, gorgeously written story—an incredible accidental find and now one of my favorite YA novels of 2017.

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