And Don’t Look Back

Gr 9 Up–Harlow and her mom have been on the run for as long as Harlow can remember. Harlow’s mom won’t tell her what they are running from, and Harlow stopped asking long ago. She’s gotten used to the routine of upending her life and changing her identity at the drop of a hat. After all, it’s all she’s ever known. Then one night, tragedy strikes, and Harlow suddenly finds herself able to choose her own path. Finding it hard, both psychologically and logistically, to keep running from something she doesn’t know, she heads back to her mom’s hometown to find some answers. Barrow adeptly grapples with the concepts of identity, loss, and generational trauma while keeping readers at the edge of their seats with high stakes drama involving a creepy house, a missing person, and lots of family secrets. Even though Harlow's circumstances are extreme, young readers will relate to her search for who she is, not only from a genetic standpoint, but also as a person on the cusp of adulthood.