SAY THE WORD

Perfectionist Shawna hasn’t seen her mother, Penny, in years, not since Penny left their Ohio home to live with another woman in New York. When she dies suddenly of a stroke, Shawna gets to know Penny’s partner, Fran, and her two sons. Their relationship goes from accepting to awkward after Shawna learns that one of Fran’s sons might be her blood brother. The custody battle that ensues puts Shawna in the position of go-between, in which she gets caught between her love for her brother and her father’s use of the law to do the legal, yet unkind, thing. During this time of upheaval, Shawna also learns that her best friend is a lesbian. Garsee manages to give every character depth and dimension without falling into the trap of making the children too perfect and angelic and the adults imperfect to the point where the reader loses sympathy for them, save for Shawna’s father. The details of Shawna’s daily life sometimes slow down the plot, but it is because of these details that readers will believe Shawna’s final transition from doormat to independent thinker. (Fiction. YA)