"A friendship with a troubled classmate helps Macy confront the childhood sexual trauma she's kept secret for years. Macy first met Sebastian when he moved to her suburban town in elementary school, but it's at her friend Rebecca's party many years later that Macy first gets the sense that Sebastian really sees her. Then, the next morning, Sebastian disappears; the rumor mill has it he's gone to the psych ward after a suicide attempt. Macy and Sebastian's brief but intimate conversation at the party sparks a series of changes in Macy: she starts visiting Sebastian in the hospital, she twists her blond hair into dreadlocks, and she begins--slowly, and not always voluntarily--to make sense of her past. Flashbacks--matter-of-fact, never graphic or sensationalized, and fraught with ambivalence--are handled particularly well. Each of Macy's current relationships is carefully imagined, each unique but shaped in its own way by Macy's past trauma. The downfall here is the dreadlocks. In an era in which teen literature is increasingly under fire for its lack of racial diversity, a blonde, presumably white character putting on a traditionally black hairstyle as a symbol of her own toughness and self-acceptance feels catastrophically out of touch.
A powerful story of healing undermined by its central symbol. (Fiction. 14-18)" -- Kirkus Reviews "First shot out of the gate, Sinel bravely addresses tough topics, demonstrating that the weight of secrets can pull us under--and their release can save us from drowning." --Holly Schindler, critically acclaimed author of A Blue So Dark and Feral "A bewitching, beautiful, and brave debut. Readers will marvel at Macy's resilience. Natasha Sinel's writing devastates and uplifts, by turns. An important story of one girl's journey to rewrite the blueprint of her own life by facing the truth inside herself." --Carrie Mesrobian, award-winning author of Sex & Violence and Perfectly Good White Boy "In her YA debut, Natasha Sinel paints a riveting picture of a teenager haunted by her past and struggling with her present.
Macy's world is richly drawn, heartbreakingly real, and difficult to put down. The Fix shines." --I.W. Gregorio, author of None of the Above "In this masterful debut, Natasha Sinel explores how a shocking act of betrayal can be overlooked within an otherwise loving family. A vivid storyteller, Sinel tackles an emotional topic, portraying the pain and repercussions of Macy's experience with an honest sensitivity. I was hooked from the opening pages of The Fix ." --Yvonne Ventresca, award-winning author of Pandemic "A standout YA debut, The Fix perfectly captures how it feels to be crushed under a life-changing, personal secret since childhood.
Sinel's unflinchingly honest writing dissects the lies we tell ourselves to cope with trauma and reveals the power we seize when we finally decide to see the truth." --Marie Jaskula, author of The Lost Marble Notebook of Forgotten Girl & Random Boy.