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Printz Honor winner and William Morris Award finalist Jessie Ann Foley’s latest YA novel is a comitragic coming-of-age story about an awkward teenage guy who, after the loss of his brother, finds healing and a sense of self where he least expected to. As the youngest of eight, painfully average Pup Flanagan is used to flying under the radar. He’s barely passing his classes. He lets his longtime crush walk all over him. And he’s in no hurry to decide on a college path. The only person who ever made him think he could be more was his older brother Patrick, the family’s golden child. But that was before Patrick died suddenly, leaving Pup with a family who won’t talk about it and acquaintances who just keep saying, “sorry for your loss.” But when Pup excels at a photography assignment he thought he’d bomb, things start to come into focus. His dream girl shows her true colors. An unexpected friend exposes Pup to a whole new world, right under his nose. And the photograph that was supposed to show Pup a way out of his grief ultimately reveals someone else who is still stuck in their own. Someone with a secret regret Pup never could have imagined.
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If you are a fan of Brigit Kemmerer or C.G. Drews, this book is for you *u*
It has all the best things: large families, messy meals together, tragic backstories, loss, feel-good sibling moments but also sibling fights, precious cinnamon roll main characters and happy endings despite all the horrible things they have to go through :)
This was definitely one of the better books I've read recently. It's realistic and has original characters. Pup was such an interesting and likeable character - at first you think he's just shy, a bit on the weaker side and yeah, he mostly just keeps to himself, doesn't say what he really wants to say. But boy did he change. He does so many brave things by the end, I felt like a proud mom XD
His family is one of the best families I've ever read about and I'd recommend this book just for that. The rest of the secondary characters were also fun to read about and they felt like real people - Carrie, Luke, Abby, his art teacher, Annemarie, Izzy etc.
If you're in the mood for an equally tragic and happy contemporary about families and moving on - this would be a good choice for you :D