Brave New Girl

A fourteen-year-old trying to find her way in the world, Doreen is as much an outcast at school as she is at home. Marginalized by her peers, misunderstood by her parents, and mourning the loss of her older brother who disappeared when she was just a child, Doreen finds solace in her fierce love of music and in her best friend, Ted.But when her older sister begins dating a bewildering twenty-one-year-oldnamed Matthew, Doreen must confront feelings she never knew she possessed. Forced into adulthood kicking and screaming (not to mention swearing),Doreen ultimately impels her troubled family to forge a new understanding ofthe world -- and, maybe more surprisingly, of one another.High school is bad enough; it's worse when you have only one friend in the world and a family that just doesn't get it. This breathless coming-of-age novel explores the alienation of adolescence and introduces a bold and shimmering new voice in fiction.

Louisa Luna is the author of Brave New Girl and Crooked. She lives in New York City.