By Amber McBride, Feiwel & Friends, 2023.
Amber McBride is the author of the 2022 John Steptoe New Talent Award winner Me: Moth. Born in Heidelberg, Germany, McBride attended James Madison University where she graduated with her BA in English, and Emerson college where she earned her MFA. She’s currently a professor at the University of Virginia where she teaches creative writing. We Are All So Good at Smiling draws on McBride’s personal experience with clinical depression.
Whimsy, and 18 year old Black girl, is not really all that whimsical. She’s spent the last ten years in and out of hospitals for her mental health, this time, because her mom found a list of ways she could die – not that she was going to act on the list. When a new boy, Faerry, shows up to the hospital, there’s something about him that feels familiar. But with her mom’s ability to erase memories, Whimsy can’t quite put her finger on it. Once her treatment is up, Whimsy finds that Faerry has moved in across the street, and will be one of the few other Black kids at her school. But when Faerry goes missing, she’s certain he’s gone into the haunted forest where her brother went missing ten years ago, she’s forced to face her fears in order to save him, if she’s brave enough.
What works: This novel in verse seamlessly weaves together fairy tales from different cultures that readers might be familiar with. The story almost feels like magical realism, but there are too many magical pieces to call it such. It deftly tackles difficult topics around racism, bullying, death, self-harm, and suicide in a way that feels authentic to the characters. And the metaphors throughout speak to the overwhelming nature of depression in a way that takes it seriously.
While the book is emotionally heavy, it makes a wonderful read for those who know a loved one dealing with depression or for those who have been diagnosed with depression and feel quite alone. It may come in especially handy for parents. It comes with a constant reminder that with depression the only way out is through. There’s no magic that can make quick work of moving on.
What doesn’t work: Many aspects of this story work so well, however, the metaphor of forgetting as a symptom of depression through the magic worked by Whimsy’s mother may go unnoticed to those who haven’t suffered from depression before. Because there were so many missing pieces from what both Whimsy and Faerry knew, the story feels a bit repetitive in some places.
Pass It or Grab It? Certainly a book to grab with a note to head the content warnings if you need to!
Content Warnings: suicidal ideation, racism, self harm, bullying
Black Cotton Reviewers 