Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Jan 2021
352 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
A story that begins where too many others end, this stunningly written and unflinchingly authentic #ownvoices tale of love, loss, and hope will touch fans of All the Bright Places and Girl in Pieces.
Life's tough when you didn't expect to be living it. But now that Journey has a future, she apparently also has to figure out what that future's supposed to look like.
Some days the pain feels as fresh as that day: the day she attempted suicide. Her parents don't know how to speak to her. Her best friend cracks all the wrong jokes. Her bipolar II disorder feels like it swallows her completely.
But other days—they feel like revelations. Like meeting the dazzling Etta, a city college student who is a world unto herself. Or walking into the office of the volunteer hotline, and discovering a community as simultaneously strong and broken as she is.
Or uncovering the light within herself that she didn't know existed.
"Gardner's depiction of mental illness, both through Journey's own continual suicidal ideation and her therapists' and doctors' explanations of the difference between ideation and attempt, is deft and thoughtful...the masterful handling gives the book bibliotherapeutic potential for readers struggling with the same issues...An incredibly tough but worthwhile read." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Gardner's gorgeous language and the atmospheric tone makes this a well-crafted, genre-defying story that deserves a wide readership." - Booklist (starred review)
"A worthy addition to library collections, especially for those looking to expand their mental health collections and add more titles featuring LGBTQIA characters." - School Library Journal
This information about Girl on the Line 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.
Faith Gardner is the author of Girl on the Line, The Second Life of Ava Rivers, and Perdita. Her short fiction has appeared in dozens of online and print publications. When she's not writing, she works at Daily Kos and plays in the band Plot 66. She lives in the East Bay area.
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