Author: Leah Scheier
Pubdate: September 1st, 2015
ISBN: 9781492614418
Tradepaper/$9.99 ● Ages 14+
“I was the one he trusted. I was the one he loved, the only one who believed him, even when his own mother had locked him up and thrown away the key. And now, I was going to pass down the white tiled hallway, knock on his doctor’s office door, slam his secret notebook on her desk and make her read it, make her understand what he was hiding, make her see what only I had seen.”
April won't let Jonah go without a fight. He’s her boyfriend—her best friend. She’ll do anything to keep him safe. But as Jonah slips into a dark depression, trying to escape the traumatic past that haunts him, April is torn. To protect Jonah, she risks losing everything: family, friends, an opportunity to attend a prestigious music school. How much must she sacrifice? And will her voice be loud enough to drown out the dissenters—and the ones in his head?
Buy Links
Amazon : Apple : BAM : B&N : Chapters
Indiebound
An Excerpt
I KNOW MY WAY AROUND THE MENTAL HOSPITAL. I doubt most of the girls in my neighborhood could claim that, even though many of us lived just a few minutes from its leafy, sterile grounds, and some of us picnicked on the lawn outside its gate during summer break.
By the
end of tenth grade, I knew Shady Grove Hospital better than I knew my
school. I knew that the security guard’s name was Carla and that she’d
worked at her depressing post since the place
was built. I knew the quiet path behind the topiary garden where I
could wait until visiting hours began and she let me in. I’d memorized
the shape and color of his shadow behind the dark-red curtains, and I
knew where I had to stand so he could see me from
his eleventh-story window. From that distant spot, I could even guess
how well the medicine was working for him that day; I could tell what
kind of visit it would be by counting the paces of his shadow.
I had the
place mapped out, his daily routine memorized, the doctors’ names and
call schedule, every pointless detail carefully recorded in his special
little book. He’d given me those notes as
if they were classified secrets, the papers wrapped in strips of
hospital linen sealed together with bubble gum, long wads of partially
chewed Wrigley’s tied into a crisscrossed mesh. That tat- tered spiral
notebook was crammed with data he’d gathered over
months: patients’ names and histories, nurses’ phone numbers, the
cleaning crew’s shift hours. I would never know how these bits of
information came together for him or how he even found them out. But
somewhere in these random nothings, he’d put together a
story for me, a clue of how to get to him, a coded message that, for
some reason, he believed only I could read. I was the one he trusted,
the only one who had not betrayed him. I was the one he loved, the only
one who believed him, even when his own mother
had locked him up and thrown away the key.
And now,
nearly three months after they’d taken him away, I was finally ready. I
was going to march up to the security window, look into the tired
guard’s blurry eyes, state my name and the name
of the patient I was visiting, and hear the buzz and click of the
locked gate sliding open. I was going to walk down the white- tiled
hallway, knock on his doctor’s office door, slam his secret notebook on
her desk, and make her read it, make her understand
what he was hiding, make her see what only I had seen.
I was finally going to do it. I was going to betray him.
About the Author
Leah Scheier works as a pediatrician and
pens stories of romance and adventure. Her first novel, Secret Letters,
was published in June 2012 (Hyperion/Disney) and received a starred
review from School Library Journal, as well as glowing
reviews from Booklist, VOYA, and Publishers Weekly. She lives in
Maryland. Learn more at leahscheier.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment