Everything Beautiful Is Not Ruined

Gr 8 Up—Setting a coming-of-age story in the framework of an unwelcome wilderness expedition is a bit of a tired conceit, but in Younge-Ullman's outstanding YA novel, a teen's backwoods journey becomes exciting and emotionally engrossing. Ingrid has had an unorthodox upbringing with a single opera star mother who suffers a devastating career loss. After Mom is forced to settle into a more traditional job and life, she is almost completely derailed by deep depression. As part of a mother-daughter deal to find a healthy future for both, Ingrid is sent on a youth wilderness trip. Mostly set in the northern Ontario wilderness, the novel alternates between the "now" of the 21-day trek and the "then" of Ingrid's turbulent adjustment to settled life. Ingrid's never-sent letters to her mother appear throughout the narrative and detail her physical and emotional struggles through attacks of vampirelike mosquitoes and black flies, grueling portages, and much more challenging experiences, including an attempted sexual assault. And while the settings are vividly realized, it's the author's characterization skills that bring this narrative to life. The realistic ending makes it clear that Ingrid will overcome her difficulties and that healing is a journey and not a destination.