The Beautiful Lost

March 15, 2017
It's been six years since Maia's mother left and one year since she was hospitalized for attempting suicide. The depression is starting to set in again, but this time she has The Plan. Eighteen-year-old Maia is determined to find her mother. The young white woman has no problem saying goodbye to her father or even her best friends, but leaving Billy, her longtime crush, proves more difficult. She risks a meeting, thinking if she can just see him one more time, she'll be able to leave. But Billy is just as unwilling to lose her, offering to run away with her. He knows how to disappear, telling her that cellphones are out, but good music and snack foods are a must. Maia finds herself falling in love with the freckled white boy. And when everything starts falling apart, losing him seems like just one more thing she cannot bear. Veteran Rice pens a riveting examination of the ravages of depression and loss. Both Maia and Billy are well-formed and complicated, and their progression from acquaintanceship to love will tug at even the most jaded hearts. An author's note and resources serve as encouragement for those battling their own pain. This novel clearly demonstrates that sometimes it is only in darkness that one can see light. (Fiction. 12-16)

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June 1, 2017

Gr 7 Up-An absent mother, a battle with depression, and a road trip with the son of a murderer-what's not to like? This realistic novel starts slowly. When Maia was only 13, her mother left, sending her letters filled with loving reminders of the bond they once had. The promise of rekindling that relationship inspires Maia to plan a trip to the only fjord in North America to go and live with her mother, who is researching whales. Maia has a crush on Billy, a social outcast who's used to evading the law (his father was convicted of murdering his wife for the insurance money). Together, Billy and Maia cover their tracks and make their way to Canada to find Maia's mother. Teens will read this predictable romance with apprehension, wondering how Rice will resolve two main issues: Maia's decision to stop taking her medication, and her pact with Billy never to return to New Britain, CT. Readers will be relieved that the resolution of both matters is handled responsibly. The author's note sheds light on her own experience with depression, and a valuable list of resources is appended. VERDICT Fans of Nicholas Sparks will fall in love with this YA title.-Jodeana Kruse, R.A. Long High School, Longview, WA

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 2, 2017
The gentle sounds of a piano playing at the opening sets the tone for Rice’s YA novel about 16-year-old Maia’s struggle with depression. When her mother abandons her family to follow her dream of studying whales in Tadoussac Bay in Quebec and her father remarries, Maia descends into depression, attempts suicide, and is sent to a rehabilitation institution near her home in Connecticut. Returning to school is difficult for her, and she finds a welcome distraction in her budding romance with Billy, the son of a murderer who is living in a nearby group home. Maia becomes convinced that finding her mother will give her the peace she longs for, and soon she and Billy run headlong on a wild adventure to Canada. Narrator Clarke’s youthful and convincingly emotional voice conveys Maia’s tumultuous feelings about her parents’ divorce and her first love; Maia’s battle with depression looms even during the high points of her road trip. Clarke provides Billy with a husky bad boy’s voice, but the voices of Maia’s friends and family are not noticeably distinct. Rice chimes in at the end to read the author’s note detailing her own experience with depression and provides resources for young people experiencing this disease. The change of pace and reader helps convey the seriousness of the issues explored in this coming-of-age tale. Ages 12–up. A Scholastic hardcover.

January 1, 2018
Maia is barely managing her depression; she longs to run away to find her mother, a scientist who left the family to study whales in remote Canada. Maia carries out her plan and, strangely, her crush Billy comes along for the ride. Maia's voice is quirky but indistinct in this road-trip novel, and her motivations feel childish and inauthentic.

(Copyright 2018 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)