(1) YA A mother and daughter each wage their own battles in the face of mom's breast cancer. Persistently optimistic, Liza is determined to outrun her mother's illness and any other troubles in her path. Her mother's brief, wrenching narratives are brutally honest about the pain her family's denial is causing her. Of course, it is Liza's "flaws" that make her human and interesting in the first place, and the widening gap between mother and daughter will resonate with teenage readers.

Reviewer: Lauren Adams | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2000

(4) YA Sounding like a female clone of Holden Caulfield, fourteen-year-old Sarah confesses the intimate details of her life. Her charismatic father who adored her died a year ago, and there exists, she believes, no one else to love her unconditionally. The novel's cynical tone may bore some readers, but others will be happy to wallow along with Sarah in her own misery.

Reviewer: Susan P. Bloom