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by Amber McBride
They Both Die at the End meets The Bell Jar in this haunting, beautiful young adult novel-in-verse about clinical depression and healing from trauma, from National Book Award Finalist Amber McBride.
Whimsy is back in the hospital for treatment of clinical depression. When she meets a boy named Faerry, she recognizes they both have magic in the marrow of their bones. And when Faerry and his family move to the same street, the two start to realize that their lifelines may have twined and untwined many times before.
They are both terrified of the forest at the end of Marsh Creek Lane.
The Forest whispers to Whimsy. The Forest might hold the answers to the part of Faerry he feels is missing. They discover the Forest holds monsters, fairy tales, and pain that they have both been running from for 11 years.
"The choice of verse to tell this absorbing story is a strong one; readers are drawn along by the intense and vivid imagery, and the depictions of clinical depression, guilt, and grief are visceral. McBride explores the impact of the intersection between Blackness and mental illness ... and the difficulties of two unusual young people finding refuge through friendship from the pressures the world exerts on them. Whimsy's practice of Hoodoo and the empowerment she receives from the magic inside and around her help her contend with her depression and unravel her grief without negating a brutal, yet ultimately hopeful, reality...Important messages uniquely delivered." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"McBride makes exceptional use of the verse novel format, with some poems reading almost as detailed and descriptive prose, while other entries are just a few judiciously chosen lines that make readers slow down and work a bit to parse out full meaning." - Bulletin of the Center of Children's Books (starred review)
"Drawing from personal experience, as detailed in a beginning note, McBride delivers a dark, whimsical adventure that viscerally depicts experiences of clinical depression, generational trauma, racism, self-harm, suicidal ideation, and survivor's guilt." - Publishers Weekly
"Raw and poignant and promising hope, even when it seems there is no way out... promises hope." - Shelf Awareness
"McBride's lush free-verse poetry creates a vibrant world teetering between the real and the magical, but the images and atmosphere act as background to serious issues ... Although the subject matter is heavy, the book serves as a reminder that, as sorrow and loss come for everyone, no one is alone. Back matter addresses mental health and expands on the story's elements from fairy tales and folklore." - The Horn Book
This information about We Are All So Good at Smiling was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Amber McBride teaches English literature at Northern Virginia Community College and has a BA in English and an MFA in Creative Writing from Emerson College. Her work has been published in Ploughshares, Provincetown Arts, Decomp and more. Me (Moth) is her debut novel. McBride lives in Charlottesville, VA.
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