by Zilla N.

The Things We Couldn’t Save by Nicole Bea is a book about me in high school. This is what it felt like to fall in love the first time, and then what it felt like to fall out of love again. This is what it felt like to have a best friend who was more precious to me than air but to know that time was pulling us apart, that we were going different directions and turning into different people, and that our friendship might not survive.

This is me, the good girl, trying to be cool by drinking – but puking in front of the people I was trying to impress. Trying to figure out who I was by making a lot of mistakes and only realizing afterwards that I wasn’t the kind of person who did *that*. If you, like me, tried in high school to be cooler than the dork you actually were (and still are!), this book might be about you too.

Nicole is a masterful writer. I’ve read it twice and I teared up both times. I want to give Clarke a hug. I want to give my teenage self – all our teenage selves – hugs too.

You can find it here.