Gr 9 Up-Friendship can be complicated, especially in high school. Told in alternating points of view, this debut YA novel explores what happens in Jessie and Annie's relationship during their sophomore year in a Canadian suburb. Lo sustains reader interest by switching perspectives, creating distinct voices for her two main characters, who fluctuate as they grow throughout the novel. Jessie is initially sheltered and withdrawn in social situations after suffering a traumatic bullying experience in middle school. Struggling with anxiety and panic attacks, she keeps her mental health problems hidden until Annie moves to her school. Beautiful and seemingly confident, Annie notices Jessie immediately, and they click, instantly becoming best friends. Yet Annie's determination masks her own trauma, as she struggles with her dad's new wife, her stepsister, and the death of her beloved mother in a tragic car accident six years earlier. When Annie begins hanging out with Jessie's former bullies and starts dating the hot guy she's been secretly crushing on, their friendship starts to unravel. It doesn't take long before misunderstanding leads to backstabbing, with each sharing the other's most private confidences with the world. Give this to mature teens who are looking to step up from Ann Brashares's "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" series. It explores issues such as cyberbullying, abortion, and mental health. VERDICT This realistic portrayal of friendship is recommended as a first purchase where realistic fiction is popular.-Rachel Zuffa, Racine Public Library, WI © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

I'm so far from popular that the light from popular would take a million years to reach me, says Jessie, a sophomore misanthrope. She's still reeling from a freshman-year humiliation and suffering from what she calls terminal loneliness when new-girl Annie befriends her. Annie is as outgoing and likable as Jessie is sour and reclusive. But beneath her sunny veneer, Annie is also recovering from the death of her mother and her father's remarriage to a woman she despises. Jessie and Annie's fast friendship should be binding and everlasting, everything they each need. But possessiveness and anxiety, jealousy and dependency the usually normal trappings of a deep high-school relationship collide, to unpredictable and catastrophic results. This debut novel is undoubtedly shaped by author Lo's career as a teacher in a behavior-support program for teens. As such, How It Ends feels, at points, both painfully tragic and true. Lo's lucid treatment of mental illness and risky behavior is refreshing, hard, and necessary.--Walters Wright, Lexi Copyright 2016 Booklist

After working with at-risk teens for 12 years, Lo writes her first novel, painstakingly tracing the evolution of a friendship between two vulnerable high school students in suburban Ontario. Alternating between the girls' perspectives, she first introduces Jessie, who has developed an anxiety disorder after being bullied as a freshman. Her plan to keep her "head down, focus on school, and ignore everything else" changes when new student Annie makes friendly overtures. Unhappy with her home life and tired of phonies, Annie is struck by Jessie ("She's so painfully real that it almost hurts to look at her"). The girls quickly bond, but tensions mount when Annie is drawn to another classmate, the very girl who made Jessie's life miserable. Lo skillfully shows how the girls' very different past experiences affect their perspectives; anger and jealousy (mixed with Jessie's prescription-drug dependency and Annie's longing for her late mother) complicate matters, and both girls spiral downward before they can learn to trust again. Despite dark moments, Lo's novel is an inspiring read, revealing the power of courage and compassion. Ages 14-up. Agent: Mackenzie Brady Watson, New Leaf Literary & Media. (June) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Debut author Lo explores the life cycle of a friendship, with alternating narratives that reveal how all stories have two sides. Jessie suffers from "terminal loneliness" and lives where "the light from popular would take a million years" to reach. She enters grade 10 hoping for invisibility; she'll take her daily Prozac and endure her suburban Ontario high school. When she's suddenly befriended by new kid Annie (seemingly fearless in the face of small-minded high school drama), anxiety-plagued Jessie feels her world expand and brighten. The two white girls form an opposites-attract bond: Annie (who's lost her mother and struggles with her stepmom) envies Jessie's intact home and academic abilities; timid Jessie admires Annie's bold style and approach to life. Trouble in paradise arrives (somewhat predictably) when both fall for the same boy, but romance is refreshingly peripheral to Lo's main subject: the complexity of close female friendship. Lo (who's worked with at-risk teens) offers a nuanced exploration of stressors on this vulnerable population: the effect of social media, well-meaning parents with complicated agendas, and peer influence. She tackleswithout condescending or simplifyingchallenging subjects such as drug dependency and the consequences of sexual activity, offering an unflinching look at the emotional toll of abortion. A thoughtful depiction of teen friendship and the competing costs of concealingand revealingthe truth. (Fiction. 14-18) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.