A review by betwixt_the_pages
We Were Beautiful by Heather Hepler

4.0

It's been a year since fifteen-year-old Mia Hopkins was in the car crash that killed her older sister and left her terribly scarred. The doctors tell her she was lucky to survive. Her therapist says it will take time to heal. The police reports claim there were trace amounts of alcohol in her bloodstream. But no matter how much she tries to reconstruct the events of that fateful night, Mia's memory is spotty at best. She's left with accusations, rumors, and guilt so powerful it could consume her.

As the rest of Mia's family struggles with their own grief, Mia is sent to New York City to spend the summer with a grandmother she's never met. All Mia wants to do is hide from the world, but instead she's stuck with a summer job in the bustling kitchens of the cafe down the street. There she meets Fig--blue-haired, friendly, and vivacious--who takes Mia under her wing. As Mia gets to know Fig and her friends--including Cooper, the artistic boy who is always on Mia's mind--she realizes that she's not the only one with a painful past.

Over the summer, Mia begins to learn that redemption isn't as impossible as she once thought, but her scars inside run deep and aren't nearly so simple to heal ... especially when Mia finally pieces together her memories of the night Rachel died.

Rating: 4/5 Penguins
Quick Reasons: poignant, heavy-hitting subjects; well-written, believable amnesia; Heather Hepler explores PTSD, depression, and shifting family dynamics in the midst of trauma and loss; well-rounded, quirky characters; this journey unraveled like a fraying ribbon, in a beautiful way

HUGE thanks to Heather Hepler, Blink Publishing, the Fantastic Flying Book Club, and Netgalley for sending a complimentary egalley of this novel my way! This in no way altered my read of or opinions on this title.

Once again this year, I found myself exploring the world in a new way with this read. Because I go into most novels "blind" (I don't really ever fully READ the synopsis, but instead skim over it and base my judgments on key words/the cover/the title/the author.......), I went into this book with no clear expectations. I didn't remember what the synopsis said the book was about...so finding myself looking at the world through Mia's eyes, in the midst of loss and trauma, was as new to me as to Mia herself.

I stood on the porch, my arms wrapped around myself, trying to stop the shivering. It wasn't the cold--the weather was unseasonably warm for May. It was the remaining loon calling from across the lake. They mate for life. I remember my mother telling Rachel and me that when we were young. That night, after my father went to sleep, I sat on the deck, listening as I had ever since my mother left. Listening to the loon call again and again. Every night, I sat out there, listening. The long, mournful sound would echo across the lake and raise goose bumps on my arms.

But one night I sat until all the color had faded from the sky, until the bats stopped swooping toward the water trying to catch their fill of mosquitoes. I sat there long after my father came out to tuck a blanket around me, pausing for a moment with his hand on my shoulder before stepping back inside and pulling the screen door shut behind him. I sat there until I could see my breath, and the only noises were the sounds of the leaves rustling in the wind and the distant sound of a dog barking. But no call ever came. I'm not sure which was worse: the sorrowful calls or the silence. As long as she was calling, she had hope. The silence was heavy with despair.

Heather Hepler explores some poignant, heavy subjects in this book--some of which I won't even mention, because #spoilers. Included, however, are depression and PTSD in the aftermath of trauma. Survivor's guilt, and the ways that losses can wreak havoc on a family, are also touched upon. There is a beautifully smooth transition for Mia's character arc; we start the journey knowing just as much as she does, and come out the other side with all the details laid bare. I feel like Heather Hepler did a glorious job of making her readers WANT to relate to Mia, number one...and then following through by opening her character up like a fraying ribbon. By the end of the read, I felt like I knew Mia almost as well as I know myself--which is saying a lot, as it's not so easy a feat to accomplish in writing.

I really appreciate the lengths that the author went to, to bring this story more fully to life for her readers. It is obvious that Heather Hepler has a passion--and a knack--for the art of wordsmithing. I'd recommend this read to lovers of contemporary fiction, well-rounded characters, and stories that don't give away all their secrets at once. We Were Beautiful is bound to make waves in the ways you view the world, Penguins, if you let it.