Starting from Here

Gr 8 Up—In the two years since her mother died, 16-year-old Colby Bingham has had a life full of heartbreak. Her grades have been slowly slipping, her truck-driver father is never home, and her almost girlfriend dumps her…for a guy. Everything changes when she finds Mo, an injured stray dog that she decides to take care of. With the help of her friend Van, a kind veterinarian named Robyn, and Mo, Colby begins to learn to trust her heart again. So when a new love interest arrives, she has to decide whether to open up or protect herself from being rejected again. The protagonist is a flawed, but realistic, character. Her poor choices are a consequence of hurt and loneliness, and of not knowing how to deal with either emotion. The chat-room-style dialogue at the start of some chapters seems extraneous, but, for the most part, Bigelow does a nice job of portraying an LGBTQ teen trying to find her identity. Overall, this is a solid debut novel.—Kimberly Castle-Alberts, Hudson Library & Historical Society, OH