We Are Okay by Nina LaCour
Genre: Queer YA Contemporary
Publication: March 5th 2019
Publisher: UQP
Source: Review copy from UQP – Thank You
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Rating: ✵✵✵✵✵
You go through life thinking there’s so much you need…
Until you leave with only your phone, your wallet, and a picture of your mother.
Marin hasn’t spoken to anyone from her old life since the day she left everything behind. No one knows the truth about those final weeks. Not even her best friend, Mabel. But even thousands of miles away from the California coast, at college in New York, Marin still feels the pull of the life and tragedy she’s tried to outrun. Now, months later, alone in an emptied dorm for winter break, Marin waits. Mabel is coming to visit, and Marin will be forced to face everything that’s been left unsaid and finally confront the loneliness that has made a home in her heart.
I was a little apprehensive going into this read. I knew being a book dealing with grief that it would be a ‘sad book’ and I was afraid it might drag up somethings for me. But being that I had only heard good things about the book from trusted bookish friends, I dived in.
I found We Are Okay to be a slow burning and beautiful queer contemporary tale of a young woman drowning in, then dealing with her grief for the grandfather and life she’s lost and for the mother she never knew.
I adored the protagonist Marin and connected with her deeply.
I liked how the chapters go back and forth between the present and the past, slowly bringing the truth to light.
And I felt that the ending leaves with the reader with the knowledge that while Marin still has a lot of healing to do, she is on the mend and she will be okay.
We Are Okay is a beautiful story that will break your heart, then turn around and heal it.
We Are Okay is a story for everyone who has lost something or someone.
We Are Okay is a story for anyone who has ever ran away from pain.
We Are Okay is a for anyone who has every lost themselves and had to fight to get themselves back.
Nina LaCour’s Goodreads | Twitter | Website.
Jade and I did a little We Are Okay book chat over on the
#AusYABloggers group site, you can view it HERE.
RIOT’S REDEMPTION 
I’m so glad you ended up enjoying this one, Sarah! I’m not really one for books that tackle grief because I feel like it can kind of seep into you but We Are Okay dealt with it so beautifully and tactfully that I never felt that. I felt connected to Marin but I wasn’t drowning in the emotions that she was. It was a perfect balance. I’m so glad we were able to host the tour for this book! I really want to re-read it now. I actually read it in one night last year, haha. Lovely review, dear ❤