Jennifer Brown’s third book, Perfect Escape, follows Kendra and her brother Grayson as they take off across America on a road trip to see one of the biggest faults in California. Grayson’s a geology addict, so Kendra sees this as their perfect destination.

Except, the story isn’t that simple.

Kendra’s older brother suffers from OCD, and he’s always been the center of attention in her family because of it. She’s lived in his shadow her whole life and has always felt this immense pressure to be Miss Perfect to impress her parents (and really, to impress herself and keep herself as distanced from Grayson’s illness as possible). After his return from a recent stint in therapy, Kendra isn’t all that convinced he’s better. But worse: Kendra’s done something horrible herself that threatens to change the dynamics of her family forever, and she did it because she needed to be perfect. When word gets out she might have to face consequences for her actions — when she might have to fess up and face her parents — she grabs her brother, her car, and decides right then and there she needs to get out of town. They are going to the big California fault, but that’s not her true destination. Kendra wants to reconnect with her former best friend, who happened to also be Grayson’s former girlfriend and the one person who loved him regardless.

Perfect Escape covers a lot of ground — there’s mental illness, challenging family dynamics, the desire to succeed, and the ever-shifting nature of relationships. The story’s primarily Kendra’s though. She’s struggling with figuring out how to be herself in a world where she’s really not allowed herself to figure out exactly who she is. She’s under the belief she needs to be perfect because she has to fill the hole that her brother can’t. More than that, though, she does it to prove something to herself. To prove that she’s never going to be like Grayson with his strange ticks, his obsessions, his disappearing acts, and his inability to be “normal.” She pushes herself to be the best at school, and when she realizes too late she can’t handle all of the pressure as well as she thought she could, she does something bad. And while it doesn’t seem all that bad on the surface, as the road trip progresses and the relationship Kendra and Grayson forge grows tighter, she explains exactly why her behavior was so bad. And it is. It’s much more serious than she’s lead readers to believe.

Kendra, for me, was an unsympathetic character. She’s extremely selfish, and her reactions to situations she puts herself in don’t beg for much from the reader. Rather than face her problems head on, she avoids them by running away. She not only does that, but she lies to cover her tracks on multiple occasions. More than that, though, she is resentful and at times completely hateful toward her brother. It’s understandable, really: she’s lived in the shadow of his disease and his OCD has been center stage in her family’s life. But as much as it’s understandable, it didn’t make me sympathize with her behavior at all. Here’s the thing — Brown is successful at writing a character who is unsympathetic. Much as I didn’t like Kendra, I was curious to know her story and understand why she was that way. I wanted to know what about her brother caused her such anger and why she decided to run away from home, rather than face her problems. Another interesting aspect about Kendra was that as much as I found her unsympathetic, I didn’t find her entirely unlikable. I think this is because what she learns on the trip with her brother shines a light into the real good within her.

When Kendra takes Grayson on the road trip from Missouri to California, she and he do no packing. They just leave. Grayson’s an unwilling companion, but he doesn’t complain too much. Kendra’s convinced him that their parents won’t get too concerned (a lie) and while they’re traveling, she learns a lot about the things that set him off. More than that, though, she learns what bits of him she really loves. Interspersed in their trip is back story that are crucial to understanding the second biggest aspect of the plot. See, Kendra’s best friend Zoe, who used to live near her, was uprooted and moved to California. Taken from Kendra completely. The reason was that Zoe had been together with Grayson and loved him, and her parents did not at all approve of the relationship. But it had been so good for Grayson and it had been so good for Kendra. Now that it’s gone, they’re both emptier, and Kendra hopes she can bring them all back together at the end of the trip. Through these moments and through the in-time road trip, we get a clearer picture of both Kendra and Grayson, and they, too, begin understanding each other better.

The thing is, it’s not that simple, and that is because of both Kendra’s behavior and because of Grayson’s OCD.

There are a number of things in the story that require suspending belief, and it was a mixed back in terms of success. I found some of the road trip experiences to feel right with the characters and story, including the fact Kendra chooses to pick up a hitchhiker (who she’d met the previous night at the motel she and Grayson stayed at). But other things, including the fact Kendra’s parents were so out of the picture and not as invested in tracking her or Grayson down, to be a little harder to work around. While it works to propel the story forward and to shine the light into the sibling relationship, knowing how their parents operated made me feel this was a bit of a stretch. I also had a difficult time with the money situation, though the explanation for how they’ve funded this trip emerges at the end and ties right into what it was Kendra was running away from in the first place.  On the whole, the road trip elements worked, and they made sense in context of the book. 

Perfect Escape is strongly-written, and the pacing is smooth. It’s not exceptionally fast nor is it slow, but right on target. Brown is able to drop readers into a story well. One of the elements I really liked about this story came through Grayson’s fixation: rocks. He spends a lot of time at the quarry near his family’s home in his early years, and when he’s on the road with Kendra, he insists on not only picking up rocks, but telling stories about why those rocks matter. Because of this obsession, Kendra concocts the story about visiting one of the biggest faults in California, and that is what keeps Grayson on board with the trip (rather than bailing out or seeking out their parents immediately). The relationship between Kendra and Grayson plays out in the metaphor of the rocks, and when the story ends, it’s probably one of the more powerful takeaways. It’s not at all over-the-top nor does it try too hard; it’s spot on. I also found the ending of this story to be one of its strengths: it’s not cut-and-dry. Readers are instead invited to imagine what goes down and the consequences awaiting Kendra. They’re not given to us.

Hand this book to readers who like realistic stories about family, about siblings, and those who like a good road trip book. There is also a nice story about friendship in here, too, both the kind between siblings and the kind between people who aren’t related. This isn’t a dark book at all, either, so readers who like contemporary books that don’t delve into dark topics will appreciate this one. It’s not light-hearted, though, but it’s also not too heavy.

Review copy received from the publisher. Perfect Escape is available now.

I’ve got a pair of reviews of books by debut authors, and I enjoyed both of them for different reasons. I wouldn’t say they’re perfect — they’re not — but they’re going to have pretty high appeal to teen readers.

Nora Price’s Zoe Letting Go follows Zoe as she’s admitted to Twin Birch. This isn’t an ordinary hospital — it’s really a mansion and the girls who are here are so strange and foreign to Zoe. They’re the kinds of girls who like to harm themselves. The kinds of girls who are so weak that after meal time, they have to sit by the fireplace, cover themselves in blankets, and hope they don’t pass out completely. This small facility only allows a limited number of girls into each session, and the girls arrive on staggering dates. By the time Zoe arrives, she’s the last one of this batch, meaning she’s also the last one to leave.

All of the activities at Twin Birch are closely monitored and their treatments are regimented. Except, Zoe doesn’t belong here. She knows she doesn’t. And that’s why she’s been writing letters home to her best friend Elise. She thinks there’s been a huge mistake. But through these letters, readers figure out why Zoe is at Twin Birch and why she really needs the help she’s receiving.

Zoe Letting Go is a dark book about eating disorders, friendship, and recovery. As readers, we’re right in Zoe’s mind as she’s writing letters — ones from which she never hears a single response. It’s odd her best friend wouldn’t try to help her. It’s odder that she is at this place. What Price does successfully in executing her story this way is that readers pick up on Zoe’s problem well before she does, but it doesn’t make the end any less satisfying. Because as much as we “know” what’s going on, Zoe is a complex, layered character who has more than one reason she’s being helped. There’s a definite reason she’s among the elite few getting treated at Twin Birch and not any ordinary facility.

Price’s debut novel is a perfect blend of the elements of Laurie Halse Anderson’s Wintergirls with Erin Saldin’s The Girls of No Return. It will have appeal to fans of both those books, as well as those who like stories about eating disorders, mental illness, and the process of therapy/recovery. Zoe Letting Go is available now.

Continuing with the theme of mental health/illness is Alex Morel’s Survive. Jane’s also living in a treatment facility but her issue is that she’s attempted suicide numerous times. This is a problem that runs in her family — she’s not the only one who has tried to end it all (though those before her have been more successful).

When Christmas break rolls around, Jane thinks she has cooked up the perfect escape plan: she’s going to kill herself on her plane trip home. She’ll slip into the bathroom with a bottle of pills. No one else will be hurt in the process. But just as she locks herself in the stall and starts taking her first round of pills, the plane hits turbulence. It’s not any kind of turbulence that stops though. This plane’s going down.

Isn’t it terrible then when Jane finds herself alive in the wreckage? She’s not only failed at her suicide attempt, but now she’s a crash survivor. Except, she’s not alone. Paul, her seatmate, is also alive, and he has convinced her that survival is what she must fight for because it’s the right thing. She and he have been given an opportunity that so many others have not. They must make the best of it.

The back blurb of this book calls it Hatchet for a new generation, and I can see that. It’s an adventure story through and through. This is a story about a girl who doesn’t want to live learning why living is important. It’s obvious there’s going to be a romance here between Jane and Paul, and while I didn’t buy it for a second, the relationship they develop of co-dependence, of working together toward a common goal, of surviving against the odds, is well done. Paul does a great job of teaching Jane the things the treatment facility failed to instill in her, and I think that’s where the real story is in this. Survive is about the importance of developing relationships (romantic or not), as well as learning to make your life work for you because those are the only two things that you can do for yourself. This is a fast-paced book and has definite appeal to reluctant readers. I won’t ruin the plot, but I’ll say this much: it might not be the happy end you expect. I saw it coming from a mile away, but it didn’t ruin the story for me. Survive published this week from Razorbill. 

Review copies received from the publisher.