![]() ![]() The strength of this novel lies in Stead’s authentic, respectful, low-key approach to the emotional life of a ten-year-old as recalled from the perspective of her slightly older self (Bea is twelve when she tells the story: “a story about me, but a different one, a person who doesn’t exist anymore”). The other secret, hidden in plain sight but only revealed at the climax, involves deliberately causing harm to another person. She lets us in on one of them, a piece of well-meaning interference in the wedding plans that turns out to be a disaster. It turns out that Bea’s upbeat spin on life is papering over some major anxieties and some serious problems with anger management. But with Stead’s fiction ( When You Reach Me, rev. Even situations involving life changes, such as her gay father’s upcoming wedding and the prospect of a new stepsister, seem to be curiously unfraught. She has loving (albeit divorced) parents an involved extended family a kindly, funny teacher a loyal best friend a dog and a cat and a wise therapist. From the outside it appears that Bea lives a charmed life. ![]()
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