It is the lost who need a map.

Deb Caletti’s novel Essential Maps for the Lost centers around Madison (or Mads), a young girl whose life has been mapped out for her in advance by a mother who relies a bit to heavily on her daughter.  Life has never been easy, but everything turns on its head when Madison finds the corpse of a woman in the ocean.

Caletti focuses on the grief of loss from all angles–from Billy, the son of the suicidal woman, to Madison’s own coming to terms with reality.  No character in this book is perfect, and even those with immense grief have secrets of their own.  Romance blossoms between the characters, but it is love stemmed from hurt and bitterness–so whether Billy and Madison will find solstice or pain in one another is unsure.

The book clocks in at just over 300 pages.  Fans of realistic and contemporary fiction will all find something to love.  You can find this book, along with other new young adult titles, on the first floor in our marketplace section.

Thanks for reading!

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