Raw, haunting, and deeply moving…
A teenager wakes from a coma and realizes her world is unrecognizable in Francis’s poignant novel. Catherine “Cat” Morgan had it all: top grades, close friends, and a future on the track. Then, a brain aneurysm changes everything. Seven days in a coma, and she wakes to a body that won’t cooperate and a life that no longer fits. Her mother turns protector, her sister grows up overnight, and Ellie, the friend who abandoned her, must decide if she’ll come back. At school, Cat is both invisible and painfully seen. But she just wants one thing: to be herself again.
The raw, intimate first-person narration pulls the reader into Cat’s frustration as she fights to reclaim even the smallest abilities. Rose’s perspective adds depth. Francis beautifully portrays her guilt, her desperate need for connection, and the silent burden of holding the family together as their mother clings to optimism and their father retreats into quiet grief. Unflinching in its portrayal of recovery, the novel lays bare the pain, loneliness, and fractured relationships that follow catastrophe. Yet beneath the weight of loss, it’s a story of love, acceptance, and resilience.
Gripping, heartbreaking, and ultimately hopeful.
Pub date August 12, 2021
ISBN 979-8536288641
Price $9.99 (USD) Paperback, $2.99 Kindle edition
