I'd Rather Burn Than Bloom
$12.99 USD
paperback
Packed with voice, this is a powerful coming-of-age YA novel about a Filipina-American teen who tries to figure out who she really is in the wake of her mother's death.
Some girls call their mother their best friend. Marisol? She could never relate. She and her mom were forever locked in an argument with no beginning and no end.
But when her mother dies suddenly, Marisol is left with no one to fight against, haunted by all the things that she both said and didn’t say. And when Marisol sleeps with her best friend's boyfriend—and then punches said best friend in the face—she's left alone, with nothing but a burning anger.
And Marisol is determined to stay angry. After all, there’s a lot to be angry about. But as a new friendship begins to develop, Marisol reluctantly starts to open up to her, and to the possibility there’s something else on the other side of that anger—something more to who she is, and who she could be.
Shannon C.F. Rogers is a multiracial American writer of Filipinx and European descent. She studied writing at the University of New Mexico and Antioch University Los Angeles while serving as an educator, after-school program director, and lost mitten finder at schools in Albuquerque, Chicago, and NYC. She lives in Brooklyn, NY. She is also the author of I'd Rather Burn Than Bloom.
Winner of the Asian Pacific American Award for Literature, Young Adult
"Readers who relish deep character development will appreciate Marisol’s messy evolution toward self-forgiveness...Heart-wrenching and heart-filled." —Kirkus Reviews, starred review
"Rogers crafts a fast-paced narrative through Marisol’s powerful and poignant voice. Insights into family dynamics, changing friendships, and biracial identity make for realistically messy and enjoyable character growth that one can’t help but empathize with." —Publishers Weekly, starred review
"This poignant coming of age story, told in alternating "then" and "now" segments, takes readers on a complicated and isolated journey of loss, with welcome moments of humor." —Horn Book Magazine
"In her smart, poignant and tear-jerking debut, Rogers expertly navigates the light and the dark, ensuring a delicate balance of laughter and tears from her readers. An aching and urgent book about love, loss and finding one's place in the world." —Aditi Khorana, author of Mirror in the Sky
ISBN: 9781250845658
336 pages 8.2 in H | 5.4 in W | 0.9 in T | 0.6 lb WtPlease select all options.