cover image Blue Plate Special

Blue Plate Special

Michelle D. Kwasney. Chronicle, $16.99 (365pp) ISBN 978-0-8118-6780-1

Kwasney’s evocative story shifts between the lives of three struggling 15-year-old girls being raised by single mothers in small New York cities. Madeline, living in 1977 Elmira, N.Y., is overweight, depressed and overburdened: “I will always be stuck here. In this spot. In this body. I will never be a spirit. Or anything other than what I am,” she thinks. Her life consists of babysitting her alcoholic mother, until she meets sensitive Tad and begins to hope for a life with a stable family. In 1993, Desiree, whose story is told in free verse, is raped by her mother’s boyfriend, Larry, becomes pregnant and flees with her boyfriend, Jeremy, who believes he is the father. And in present-day Poughkeepsie, overachieving Ariel’s ambitions and friendships are stifled by her controlling boyfriend. Ultimately the girls’ stories converge as they cope with the hands they’ve been dealt (“We all inherit someone else’s leftovers,” Ariel muses) and attempt to build better lives. Kwasney’s (Itch ) protagonists are distinctive and empathetic, her narratives meticulously structured and realistic, exposing the unpredictability—and sometimes unfairness—that life can bring. Ages 14–up. (Oct.)