First published 2002
Elizabeth Clarry is already a walking disaster of awkward moments and social missteps. Then her best friend Celia disappears to join a circus, and Elizabeth has to go after her. That alone would be enough to derail anyone's life. But then Saxon Walker, who is extremely good-looking and therefore extremely inconvenient, shows up and offers to help. Things get complicated fast. Elizabeth is also exchanging letters with a new pen pal, which turns out to be the one corner of her life where she can actually breathe. The letters give her somewhere to put all the worry and confusion she carries around for Celia. Because worrying about Celia, it turns out, is basically a full-time job. Told through letters and notes passed between characters, this is a story about friendship that refuses to stay simple, a rescue mission that keeps going sideways, and a girl figuring out who she is when the person she has always looked out for is suddenly gone.
Genres: friendship, coming-of-age, contemporary, young-adult, comedy, realistic-fiction
Vibes: emotional, heartfelt, humorous, quirky, witty
Tropes: epistolary-narrative, found-family, friends-to-lovers, rescue-mission
Period: 21st-century
276 pages · Paperback · St. Martin's Griffin