ARC Review: We Are All So Good at Smiling by Amber McBride

They Both Die at the End meets The Bell Jar in this haunting, beautiful young adult novel-in-verse about clinical depression and healing from trauma, from National Book Award Finalist Amber McBride.

Whimsy is back in the hospital for treatment of clinical depression. When she meets a boy named Faerry, she recognizes they both have magic in the marrow of their bones. And when Faerry and his family move to the same street, the two start to realize that their lifelines may have twined and untwined many times before.

They are both terrified of the forest at the end of Marsh Creek Lane.

The Forest whispers to Whimsy. The Forest might hold the answers to the part of Faerry he feels is missing. They discover the Forest holds monsters, fairy tales, and pain that they have both been running from for 11 years.

Title: We Are All So Good at Smiling
Author: Amber McBride
Expected Publication Date: January 10, 2023

Publisher: Fiewel Friends

Review:

I want to thank Fiewel Friends and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this book to read and give an honest review. 

This is my first book in-verse. I will say I was hesitant to request it because I thought for sure I would hate it written this way. But I wanted to challenge myself to read something outside my wheelhouse that might make me think or look at things differently. Boy was I happy I allowed this of myself.

This book was fantastic. I could not put it down.

My first thought is how well the poetry flows and keeps you involved in the book. I didn't want to put it down and finished it in two days (not too shabby for a full time working mom). The language, the characters, the descriptions all kept me wanting more and I was actually upset when the book was finished.

Let's touch on how it deals with mental health. We all know there is a huge crisis in the United States right now. So many people are struggling to live, to be heard, to get the help they need. This booked touched on all of that. The loneliness, the despair, the feeling of falling deeper and deeper into a pit you might never be able to climb out of.

The addition of the magical elements and the fairytale made the book that much more interesting for me to read. I loved how the author worked those elements into the story.

This book is dark and gripping and really gets to the heart of clinical depression and how it affects a person.

I will definitely be picking up more books by this author.

 

Amber McBride received her BA in English from James Madison University in 2010 and acquired her MFA in Poetry from Emerson College in 2012. She has taught English Composition, English Literature and Introduction to Poetry at James Madison University, Strayer University and Northern Virginia Community College. She currently teaches at the University of Virginia.