We Are the Goldens. Dana Reinhardt. 2014. Wendy Lamb Books. 208 Pages. [Source: ARC provided courtesy of NetGalley.] Unsettled. That’s the immediate feeling I had when I finished We Are the Goldens. This is a book that subtly sucks the reader into the emotional turmoil the narrator experiences but doesn’t give the neatly packaged happy ending that one is wont to have. Here, that’s not a bad thing – the entire book is an exploration of how perceptions distort reality and how things that are seemingly right in front of us are not always so glaringly obvious. This book is honest, in all the ugly ways that life is. We Are the Goldens takes readers on a journey with high school freshman Nell as she slowly comes to terms with the shift in the relationship she holds with her older sister Layla. The two have always been inseparable, and Nell eagerly looks forward to starting high school with junior Layla. What Nell expects to be a continuation of their previous relationship actually ends up being a reality check about the two sisters’ distinct identities and experiences.

Since You’ve Been Gone. Mary Jennifer Payne. 2015. Dundurn. 224 pages. [Source: NetGalley]. It’s not often that a book leaves me unsettled, but more and more I’m finding that YA books leave me just that.  Since You’ve Been Gone follows 15-year-old Edie Fraser as she adjusts to life in England after abruptly fleeing her home in Canada with her mother.  Mere days after settling into a new home and school, Edie comes home to find that her mother has failed to keep their communication pact and is missing.  Edie is left to further adjust to life in a strange new city by herself but also find out what’s become of her mother.  In her attempts to do so, she runs afoul of administrators in her school and the people she’s come to consider her new friends.