cover image Harmonic Feedback

Harmonic Feedback

Tara Kelly, Holt, $16.99 (288p) ISBN 978-0-8050-9010-9

A story of how it feels to be an outsider, Kelly's debut follows the complex and candid thoughts of 16-year-old Drea, who is diagnosed with ADHD and borderline Asperger's syndrome. She is highly intelligent, but certain tasks, such as driving, and social interactions are challenging ("All I know is I make sense to me—it's other people who seem complicated," she says). When she and her flighty mother move to yet another town to live with her ornery grandmother Drea wants to crawl into her shell. But then she meets flamboyant, attention-seeker Naomi and sensitive Justin, both of whom share the burden of unstable families and imperfect pasts. The trio bonds over a mutual love for making trip-hop music and a desire to trust someone, but Naomi's taste for danger and drugs soon distances her from her new friends. While Naomi's self-destruction follows a predictable downward spiral, the novel's strength lies in Drea's dynamic personality: a combination of surprising immaturity, childish wonder, and profound insight. Her search for stability and need to escape being labeled is poignant and convincing. Ages 14–up. (May)