All Rivers Flow to the Sea

Book excerpt: "McGhee writes confidently as one who remembers the ordinariness of adolescence as well as its angst . . . and compellingly creates a protagonist blindsided by loss." — Publishers Weekly (starred review) For seventeen-year-old Rose, it keeps happening — the car crash. The car crash that put her sister, Ivy, in a coma with only a respirator keeping her alive. While Rose tries to find support from her reticent mother, distraction from the series of boys she meets at the town’s gorge at night, and empathy from her neighbor William T., what she really needs must come from within herself — a release of what’s been welling up inside. Heartrending, honest, and ultimately hopeful, this is the tale of a teenager overwhelmed by trauma and loss, yet steadied by loyal friendship and the solace of first love.