Review by Booklist Review
High-schooler Shae first sees new student Cam on the bus, beautiful and fascinating with her long blond hair and metal band T-shirt. When Shae invites Cam over to listen to music, Cam opens a new world for her. Shae falls in love completely. When Shae becomes pregnant, Cam moves in with her family. Assigned male at birth, Cam begins to explore her identity as a trans woman and find her place in the world while, over the next several years, Shae's life falls apart. After the birth of their daughter, Eva, a prescription for oxy becomes a full-blown addiction for Shae, despite Cam's warnings about the risks of painkillers. Cam goes to college in Charleston and pursues a new relationship. Shae, meanwhile, babysits for a woman who dances at a club called Southern X-posure and eventually begins dancing herself to pay for pills. In stark, reflective prose, Maren (Perpetual West, 2022) lets Shae's voice guide the narrative. Readers will connect with Maren's sensitively told story of love, dependence, and the opioid epidemic.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
A West Virginia girl descends into opioid addiction after giving birth and breaking up with her trans girlfriend in Maren's emotionally taut if thematically uneven latest (after Perpetual West). Shae, an introverted 16-year-old, is captivated by the new-to-town Cam, a misfit with piercings and long blond hair who is defiant even while being bullied by classmates. The pair bond over their love of punk rock, and Cam moves in with Shae and her mother. The teens start having sex, and Shae gets pregnant. Shortly before their daughter, Eva, is born, Cam, now the lead singer of a band, appears onstage in Shae's clothes and comes out as trans. Shae, hearing the news for the first time, is fearful of what Cam's transition will mean for their relationship. Then, after a botched C-section, her doctor prescribes OxyContin for the pain. Unable to finish school and working as a stripper to score pills and heroin, Shae blames herself as Cam pulls away and thrives at college. Maren beautifully evokes both the natural beauty of Appalachia and Shae's plaintive longing for Cam, though the characterization of the saintly Cam, who returns to take custody of Eva while still an undergrad, feels a bit flat. Still, Maren continues to show a knack for portraying the complexities and contradictions of an often-misunderstood part of America. Agent: Bill Clegg, Clegg Agency. (May)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
Queerness, motherhood, and opioids are all entangled in this harrowing West Virginia--set coming-of-age story. The way Shae tells it, one of the defining moments of her life was meeting Cam in high school. Immediately, the narrator, whom "no one had even noticed…enough to give…a nickname," admires her new friend's shine, even though Cam's vegetarianism and edgy style attract homophobic bullies. The two teens connect over music and, as Shae's family begins to unofficially adopt Cam (whose grandfather is a less-than-attentive legal guardian), they begin a romantic relationship that leaves Shae pregnant. Shortly before their baby is born, Cam comes out as a transgender woman. Shae recognizes both this move's rightness and its danger, and seeks to help Cam with her transition, but their failure to clearly communicate soon sends the girls in radically different directions. A botched C-section brings Oxycontin into Shae's life and a spiral into addiction follows, taking Shae to desperate and heartrending places. The novel's subject matter and framing device, unfortunately, make comparisons to Demon Copperhead unavoidable. Maren's portrait of Appalachia isn't quite as evocative or expansive as Barbara Kingsolver's, but for those seeking a tighter narrative with a queer, female perspective, there is much here to savor. Shae's struggle to understand herself as a queer woman, mother, and independent person includes authentically teenage behavior (e.g., a tendency to not assert her own desires) that can make her point of view a frustrating one to be in, but she never comes across as anything other than deeply human. An alternately tender and challenging trip down the rabbit hole with an unforgettable young woman. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
