You Must Not Miss
Magpie (Margaret) Lewis’s family life has fallen apart since she caught her dad in bed with her mom’s sister six months ago. She wants nothing to do with her dad, her mom’s started drinking again, and her older sister has taken off. Her best friend has abandoned her, too, although that’s because of something that happened at Allison’s boyfriend’s party, which Magpie can’t fully recall. Magpie, who lives in a town called Farther, copes by writing about an imaginary, perfect place she calls Near. When Magpie, white, discovers a portal to Near and realizes she can not only go there, but has complete control over what happens there, it becomes the outlet for her anger and a place where she can exact revenge. With scenes from the party months before coming into full relief, Magpie remembers Allison’s boyfriend, Brandon, sexually assaulting her. But she doesn’t stop with getting back at Brandon. Not even Hither, a being from Near who acts as her conscience, can convince Magpie to reconsider as she sets out to punish anyone who’s hurt her, or, as things progress, dared to care. At the heart of this unflinching, unsettling novel navigating moral questions is a young woman whose pain is very real in a work open to interpretation, and ripe for discussion. ©2020 Cooperative Children’s Book Center
CCBC Age Recommendation: Age 14 and older
Age Range:
Grades 9-12 (Age 14 and older)
Format:
Novel
Subjects:
Abandonment
Anger
Families
Grief and Loss
Open Endings
Revenge
Sexual Assault and Rape
Violence
Diversity subject:
Psychiatric Disability/Condition
Publisher:
Little, Brown
Publish Year: 2019
Pages: 294
ISBN: 9780316449779
CCBC Location: Fiction, Leno