Book Review of We Are Okay by Nina Lacour

I was curious about We Are Okay by Nina Lacour from the moment I saw the cover. Something about the way the realistic messy bedroom (or, I later learned, dorm room) juxtaposed with the beachscape while they both blended together kept calling my eyes back. The peachy pink and almost electric shadow blue clashed in one light and coordinated beautifully in another. The more I looked, the more I wanted to look. Well, you see what I mean:

After reading the book, one of the things that most impressed me is how aptly the cover design prepared me for the experience within. I walked the beach with Marin and Mabel. I pressed onward through Marin's feelings of isolation, grief, regret, and confusion. I journeyed through the pages to where reality became surreal.

And, it was a beautiful journey. Lacour's description of the start of college for someone who didn't fit in was eerily accurate, and surprisingly comforting. Her portrayal of well-meaning people who give such expensive gifts as second changes at first impressions was steeped in emotional honesty. The beautiful portrait she painted of Marin's life with her Gramps was so vivid, so homey, so refreshing that I didn't notice what was beneath it. But, once Lacour artfully revealed everything, I had a moment I so rarely get to have as a reader: not indignation that the author didn't play fair, but astonishment at how deftly she distracted me from the deeper truths of her characters' lives.

Well played, Nina Lacour. Well played.

This is a gorgeous book for anyone dealing with grief, isolation, or betrayal. It is one of the ultimate stories about not knowing how to fit in when everyone else is floating up in the clouds and you are slogging through the trenches. It is a gift.