Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Oct 2019
384 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
Relatable, heartbreaking, and real, this is a story of resilience--the perfect novel for readers of powerful contemporary fiction like Girl in Pieces and Every Last Word.
Before, I was a million things. Now I'm only one. The Burned Girl.
Ava Lee has lost everything there is to lose: Her parents. Her best friend. Her home. Even her face. She doesn't need a mirror to know what she looks like--she can see her reflection in the eyes of everyone around her.
A year after the fire that destroyed her world, her aunt and uncle have decided she should go back to high school. Be "normal" again. Whatever that is. Ava knows better. There is no normal for someone like her. And forget making friends--no one wants to be seen with the Burned Girl, now or ever.
But when Ava meets a fellow survivor named Piper, she begins to feel like maybe she doesn't have to face the nightmare alone. Sarcastic and blunt, Piper isn't afraid to push Ava out of her comfort zone. Piper introduces Ava to Asad, a boy who loves theater just as much as she does, and slowly, Ava tries to create a life again. Yet Piper is fighting her own battle, and soon Ava must decide if she's going to fade back into her scars ... or let the people by her side help her fly.
"Ava's and Piper's wit, honesty, and strength shine with authenticity, and their struggle to understand how to be "ordinary" teenagers is just the right amount of poignant...A tender, frank coming-of-age story about the pain and power of survival." - Kirkus Reviews
"Enhanced by journal entries and poetry, the first-person narrative movingly expresses Ava's lingering sorrow and changing outlook as she navigates her way toward a new form of normalcy." - Publishers Weekly
"Thought-provoking...will push readers to think deeply about empathy, hope, and resilience in the face of heartbreak." - School Library Journal
"A heartfelt and unflinching look at the reality of being a burn survivor and at the scars we all carry. This book is for everyone, burned or not, who has ever searched for a light in the darkness." - Stephanie Nielson, New York Times bestselling author of Heaven Is Here and a burn survivor
This information about Scars Like Wings was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Erin Stewart grew up in Virginia and now makes her home in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains with her husband and their three children. Erin loves using her background in journalism to research and write fiction based on real life. A heart failure survivor and adoptive mother, she believes life throws plot twists and people in our path for a reason--always. Scars Like Wings is her debut novel.
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