Keeping 13 by Chloe Walsh

Holy heartbreak and a half.

Chapter one starts out with a god damn bang and had me reeling right from the jump. My eyes were burning with unshed tears, fighting for release. Ready to add their salty contribution to the tumultuous seas of Keeping 13. 

"Don't leave me, Shan... Please don't leave me..."

This book is a beautiful representation of the effects of trauma and abuse on a family, and the ripple effects as those waves reach further and further from the shore.

We are drowning in a sea of grief, fear, and anxiety, with our only life raft being the moments of hope and happiness found between the riptides. As readers, we know that with every up, there’s another inevitable slide back down. So we scramble to enjoy the light moments, constantly glancing around the corner for the boogeyman we know is lurking.

The story is beautifully done. It tugs on all your emotions in just the right way and leaves you with highs and lows in spades. It captures what it felt like to be sixteen in 2005. First loves, friendships, and figuring out how to grow up when your life doesn’t look like anyone else’s. It made me genuinely nostalgic for my own high school days and sparked multiple memory lane detours with my buddy reader.

But honestly, the most powerful part of this series so far has been the side characters. No matter how focused you are on the main love story and their mess of problems, you can’t help but feel the pain of the people around them too. You root for the main couple to heal and make it, but you also ache for everyone else with pieces to pick up off the floor. You want better for them all. You feel them breaking. You carry them with you.

"What about me, Shan? What. about. me..."