Excerpt from Cruel Beautiful World by Caroline Leavitt, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

Iris turns the TV to another channel. She shakes her head when she sees the hippies on the news, a sudden influx of them congregated and camping out in Boston Common, spread out on the green lawn like wildflowers, all of them in tie-dyes and striped or polka-dot pants and bare feet, some of the girls in flowing dresses or minis so tiny they barely cover their thighs, but Lucy finds herself glued to the set. "Like sheep!" Iris says, pointing to the way the cops are herding the kids back onto the streets. "Look at how they dress!" Iris marvels.

Lucy sighs. Iris wears jewel-tone silk dresses every day, or blouses and skirts. She's always in low-heeled, strappy shoes. Her white hair is braided into a fussy ring around her head, like Heidi, and her earrings are always button ones, instead of the long, jangly ones Lucy wears. "Look at that one," Iris says when the camera focuses on a boy with ringlets skimming his shoulders. "What a world," Iris marvels, and she shuts the set off. But Lucy loves the way the hippies look, the multitude of rings on their toes and fingers, the clashing clothes. These kids are part of a life glittering just inches away from her, and all she has to do is grab hold, the way she does with William's hair, thick and shiny as satin. She can almost feel her hands in it, tugging him closer to kiss her.

She wants to tell Iris and Charlotte. She wants to tell someone, but she can't .

Iris hands Lucy a brown paper bag filled with a peanut butter sandwich and an apple, the same lunch Lucy's had since elementary school. Iris sits down and pulls out the crossword puzzle from the daily newspaper. This is her favorite part of the day. She picks up a pencil and chews on the end and then glances at Lucy again. "Honey, go find a hairbrush before you go," Iris says.

Lucy pats down her cap of curls and then sits and finishes her juice. She looks around the kitchen as if she's memorizing every detail — the oak table and chairs, the braided rug — because until she's eighteen, just two years from now, when no one can legally stop her from being with William, she won't see this room again.

Excerpted from Cruel Beautiful World by Caroline Leavitt. Copyright © 2016 by Caroline Leavitt. Excerpted by permission of Algonquin Books. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.