Where I Want to Be

by Adele Griffin

First published 2005

Jane remembers when she was the older sister who mattered. She taught Lily games of pretend and shielded her from storms that rumbled through their nights. Those days feel distant now. Lily has friends who call her constantly and boys who walk her home from school. She talks about college and careers while Jane still finds comfort in the imaginary worlds they once shared. Jane watches her younger sister move forward into a life that sparkles with possibility. Meanwhile, Jane remains stuck, unable to cross the line between the fantasy that sustains her and the reality that Lily embraces. The gap between them widens with each passing day. Lily falls in love and glows with happiness that Jane can only observe from outside. Then something terrible happens that changes everything. Griffin tells their story through both voices, revealing how two sisters separated by tragedy struggle to reach across an impossible divide and find their way back to each other.

Genres: literary-fiction, contemporary, young-adult, family-drama

Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking

Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator

150 pages · Hardcover · G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers

Content warnings: mental-illness

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