Grace aka Tiger, lives with her Mother and the two of them have been thick as thieves for all of Tiger’s 16 years, that is, until she starts to feel her over protective Mother needs to give her some space to do what ‘normal’ teenagers do.
Tiger’s new boyfriend, Kai Henderson, has invited her to the school dance but she doesn’t know how to break the news to her mum, especially when she’s spent the last two days lying on the couch with what appears to be a migraine, but when Tiger finds a drawer full of unpaid bills she begins to wonder if there’s more to the story.
While Tiger’s mum has always taken care of her it hasn’t been easy without a father or her own parents around for support. They have just scraped by but in many ways, this has made their relationship so much stronger.
Aside from this, Tiger has the usual teen issues to navigate at school – mean girl Lupe Hidalgo takes every opportunity to ridicule Tiger’s choice of clothes and while best friend Cake is always there for her, sometimes the pressure she puts on Tiger to break free from her mother’s suffocating hold, makes things tense.
Tiger’s mother does eventually relent and let her go to the dance, but when she salvages a hideously old-fashioned dress for her to wear, things get heated. Tiger thinks this is just another example of her mum taking over and not allowing her to make her own choices – a large dose of the silent treatment ensues.
What Tiger doesn’t know is that this fight and this dress will remain linked to her memory of her mother forever.
When Tiger finds out that her mother has died, she is plunged into a world where pain and grief, confusion and instability define her every day. How is she going to cope without her mother who has been everything to her? How will she navigate the complex system of foster homes and being a ward of the state, just at the time when she wants to take control of her own life?
And this is just the beginning…
Read our full review | Read a Q&A with author Kathleen Glasgow | Purchase a copy of How to Make Friends with the Dark
Kathleen Glasgow is the author of the New York Times bestselling novel Girl in Pieces. She lives in Tucson, Arizona.
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