In Leah's Wake follows teenage Leah as she spirals out of control, dating a guy who's bad for her, giving up hobbies she loves, allowing her grades to drop, and experimenting with drugs. While the negative impacts of her behaviors, on both her and her family, are obvious, she spins them in a frighteningly almost logical determination that she's acting more like a grown up and that in making her own decisions she is actually doing what her parents have always wanted. Unfortunately for the Tyler family, Leah's actions don't only affect her, but her parents' marriage, her sister's reputation, and Leah's relationship with her family and friends.

From an outside and (arguably) adult perspective, Leah's attitudes and decisions made me want to alternately shake my head, shake her, smack her, or lock her in her room until she was legal, and could mess up her own life all she wanted... Somewhere else. And you can literally feel the same sense of desperation and uncertainty in her parents and sister as they learn more and more about what she's been up to. This is especially impressive to me, as I have no experience whatsoever with parenting a teen - yet I felt enough in the story that I completely empathized with Leah's family. The hardest part, though, was the times throughout the book that Leah realized that these circumstances weren't what she wanted, but wasn't strong enough to get herself out of them, despite all of the help available.

In Leah's Wake is a fantastic depiction of the way families interact, and that no family member lives their life in a vacuum - the decisions of each individual, no matter how much they think only matters to them, will impact the entire family. If you haven't given this book a try yet, what on earth are you waiting for????