Winner of the 2018 Michael L. Printz Award — An achingly beautiful novel about grief and the enduring power of friendship.“Short, poetic and gorgeously written.” —The New York Times Book Review“A beautiful, devastating piece of art.” —BookpageYou go through life thinking there’s so much you need. . . . Until you leave with only your phone, your wallet, and a picture of your mother. Marin hasn’t … Until you leave with only your phone, your wallet, and a picture of your mother. Marin hasn’t spoken to anyone from her old life since the day she left everything behind. No one knows the truth about those final weeks. Not even her best friend Mabel. But even thousands of miles away from the California coast, at college in New York, Marin still feels the pull of the life and tragedy she’s tried to outrun. Now, months later, alone in an emptied dorm for winter break, Marin waits. Mabel is coming to visit and Marin will be forced to face everything that’s been left unsaid and finally confront the loneliness that has made a home in her heart.
An intimate whisper that packs an indelible punch, We Are Okay is Nina LaCour at her finest. This gorgeously crafted and achingly honest portrayal of grief will leave you urgent to reach across any distance to reconnect with the people you love.
Praise for We Are Okay
“Nina LaCour treats her emotions so beautifully and with such empathy.” —Bustle
★ “Exquisite.” —Kirkus
★ “LaCour paints a captivating depiction of loss, bewilderment, and emotional paralysis . . . raw and beautiful.” —Booklist
★ “Beautifully crafted . . . . A quietly moving, potent novel.” —SLJ
★ “A moving portrait of a girl struggling to rebound after everything she’s known has been thrown into disarray.” —Publishers Weekly
★”Bittersweet and hopeful . . . poetic and skillfully crafted.” —Shelf Awareness
“So lonely and beautiful that I could hardly breathe. This is a perfect book.” —Stephanie Perkins, bestselling author of Anna and the French Kiss
“As beautiful as the best memories, as sad as the best songs, as hopeful as your best dreams.”
—Siobhan Vivian, bestselling author of The Last Boy and Girl in the World
“You can feel every peak and valley of Marin’s emotional journey on your skin, in your gut. Beautifully written, heartfelt, and deeply real.” —Adi Alsaid, author of Never Always Sometimes and Let’s Get Lost
more
We Are Okay wins the prize for one of the most beautiful book covers around, but don’t let the cover drive your decision to read this one. This is a story about grief and family and love, and while it was lyrical and beautiful at times, ultimately fell flat for me.
Marin is reeling from the loss of her grandfather, and moved across the country, far from everyone she knows and loves to escape from and process her loss. But when winter break brings the return of her closest friend, Marin is forced to confront everything she has been trying to escape.
What could have been a moving and emotional story just didn’t connect for me, and I couldn’t connect with Marin as much as I wanted to. The writing was beautiful, but I think this book is ultimately for a certain kind of reader, and that just wasn’t me.
bookclub read. it isn’t my usual genre so i wasn’t huge into it. i generally don’t read ya or romance-heavy books. but i’m sure that people who do enjoy those genres would enjoy this.
This book has long been a love of mine, something I go to when I need to revisit my own past. This book feels like home.
I related to the protagonist feelings and thoughts greatly. It was written so beautifully and I never wanted it to end. I would completely recommend this to anyone who likes a tear-jerker and has or wants to understand what is like to grieve a person you love greatly.
This is my favorite book I’ve read this year (2019). It’s so poignant, full of emotion, and the ending is so satisfying. The prose is spare, yet elegant. It’s easy to read. If you like literary YA/NA, you must check this out.
Loved this book. I ugly cried and when I closed it, I couldn’t get it out of my head. Beautiful.
This is a heartbreaking and beautiful novel of a young woman struggling with loss. She feels lonely and abandoned. She struggles to make sense of things.
Marin Delaney lives with her grandfather, as her mother, Claire, died years earlier. Marin and Gramps respect each other’s privacy and live companionably. Then, something happens, and Marin abandons everything and leaves for college. Now it is December, and all her classmates have gone home for break, and Marin is alone again. Her best friend, Mabel, comes to visit her from California, and they rediscover their friendship, their feelings, and try to work through her loneliness.
This is a story of family, love, depression, sadness, and relationships. Beautifully written.
Thanks to BookMovement.com for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
#WeAreOkay #NinaLaCour #BookMovement
Slow starter, slow in general.
Actually, I found this story to be a bit “pithy” in general.
It wasn’t that it was a bad story, it might just not have been a style of writing that I like so much.
It was a bit depressing and as things unravel – dark, in a pathetic-sad way.
I recall getting to the end of this book, and wishing for one more chapter…A quick, easy read with a little romance, but most of all, the feeling that the title rings true… now find out why…
I fell in love with this story from the beginning.
What a beautifully tragic book. A story about love, loss, friendship and discovering yourself. While it was my first time reading anything like it (me being a fantasy/adventure kinda reader), I enjoyed the story and the beautiful writing that at times resembled poetry
Beautifully written and engrossing from the first page, this dark novel is not plot-driven but it is rather a journey into a broken soul. The reader gathers what happened one piece at the time, building the puzzle of what led Marin to do what she did and feel what she feels.
Not a happy read, but hard to put down. I truly enjoyed it.
I recommend this to anyone struggling with loss, change, and mental illness. I truly enjoyed the relationship between Marin and Mabel, including the way it was wrapped up (unpopular with some readers).
One thing that really stuck out to me in this story, is how our family is often times more than just our blood relations. We can find family in friends as well. Family is more than just who we are related to, it’s the people who care about you and are there for you no matter what. It’s the people who welcome you into their home and life when you really need a place to turn. It’s the people that forgive us without question when we let them down and still love us through it all. Sometimes this is found in relatives, but some people have to look outside of that to find this. Marin is one of those people.
Mabel is a friend that all of us should strive for. She and her family are the kind of people to openly welcome someone who needs family in their life. When Mabel sees how much Marin needs them, there is no room for anger or bitterness in past actions, there is only the thought of making her see that they are her family now.
There is loss in the story. Marin has to deal with loss on such a huge scale, because she doesn’t just lose a family member to death, she discovers things about that family member after they pass that cause a different sort of grieving. To find out, when it’s too late, who someone truly is must be so difficult.
I think that people who enjoy the works of John Green or just Young Adult Contemporary works in general will enjoy this book.
So, so sad.
We Are Okay is a new-adult/young-adult realistic fiction novel written by Nina LaCour. The main character is a new college student but a part of the story is told in flashbacks when she was younger, thus: new-adult/young-adult.
This story is complicated and haunting, but is told in a minimal style and the writing is just lovely. It’s beautifully lonely if that makes sense. Themes include death, grief, solitude, family, friendship, sexuality, forgiveness, and secrets. After my reading experience, I wasn’t depressed or sad. I ended with a sigh and a smile. That’s what Ms. LaCour can do despite the heavy themes. I’m so glad I listened to the recent hype. Check it out!
My favorite quote:
“How many times do you get the chance to do something over again, to do it over right? You only get to make one first impression, unless the person you meet possesses a rare and specific kind of generosity. Not the kind that gives you the benefit of the doubt, not the kind that says, Once I get to know her better she’ll probably be fine, but the kind that says, No. Unacceptable. The kind that says, You can do better. Now show me.”