Hard to believe this is a debut, but McPhee-Browne has given us a novel that will leave you aching. Rich in detail and emotionally heart-wrenching, Cherry Beach is an intimate portrait of the closeness of female friendship, the devastation of unrequited love, the pain of mental illness and the vulnerability of first love. The narrative perfectly captures the intensity of youth, and the feeling that love is supposed to overcome all things and last forever. Until it doesn't.

Reading this made me angry and despondent, truly this is a novel that will stay with me for some time.

Trigger warnings: suicide, psychotic episodes, and allusions to domestic violence and emotional and sexual abuse, as well as drug use.