It's been six years since Maia's mother left and one year since she was hospitalized for attempting suicide. The depression is starting to set in again, but this time she has The Plan. Eighteen-year-old Maia is determined to find her mother. The young white woman has no problem saying goodbye to her father or even her best friends, but leaving Billy, her longtime crush, proves more difficult. She risks a meeting, thinking if she can just see him one more time, she'll be able to leave. But Billy is just as unwilling to lose her, offering to run away with her. He knows how to disappear, telling her that cellphones are out, but good music and snack foods are a must. Maia finds herself falling in love with the freckled white boy. And when everything starts falling apart, losing him seems like just one more thing she cannot bear. Veteran Rice pens a riveting examination of the ravages of depression and loss. Both Maia and Billy are well-formed and complicated, and their progression from acquaintanceship to love will tug at even the most jaded hearts. An author's note and resources serve as encouragement for those battling their own pain. This novel clearly demonstrates that sometimes it is only in darkness that one can see light. (Fiction. 12-16)

Gr 7 Up-n absent mother, a battle with depression, and a road trip with the son of a murdererwhat's not to like? This realistic novel starts slowly. When Maia was only 13, her mother left, sending her letters filled with loving reminders of the bond they once had. The promise of rekindling that relationship inspires Maia to plan a trip to the only fjord in North America to go and live with her mother, who is researching whales. Maia has a crush on Billy, a social outcast who's used to evading the law (his father was convicted of murdering his wife for the insurance money). Together, Billy and Maia cover their tracks and make their way to Canada to find Maia's mother. Teens will read this predictable romance with apprehension, wondering how Rice will resolve two main issues: Maia's decision to stop taking her medication, and her pact with Billy never to return to New Britain, CT. Readers will be relieved that the resolution of both matters is handled responsibly. The author's note sheds light on her own experience with depression, and a valuable list of resources is appended. VERDICT Fans of Nicholas Sparks will fall in love with this YA title.Jodeana Kruse, R.A. Long High School, Longview, WA

Maia is slipping away in more than one sense of the words. Haunted by depression and her mother leaving her, she can no longer stay in her Connecticut town. She devises a plan to run away. On her way out of town, she stops by the group home in town to tell her crush, Billy, goodbye, and is pleasantly surprised when Billy jumps in the car and decides to go with her. He has issues of his own: his dad murdered his mother and Billy helped him get away, torn between helping someone he loved while also mourning for his mother. When his father went to prison, Billy went to the group home and has been looking for a way out ever since. Maia is his ticket out, and she wants to head north to find her mother, a whale researcher, in the remote Canadian fjords. While escaping pain by running away is a common theme in young adult literature, when Maia and Billy set off for Canada, the plot feels forced, hardly plausible, and rather theatrical. While on the lam, Maia and Billy encounter so many different types of people—students on a gray tree frog expedition (one of whom is a witch), teen lesbians in the public library, and the crabbing/lobster family from the Innu Reserve—that the story loses traction more than once. One thing this book does exceptionally well, however, is tackle the subject of depression. When Maia quits her medicine cold-turkey on the road, she loses control. One particularly frank and heartbreaking moment describes her hearing her own screams bounce off of the fjord’s rock walls. It is this loss of control that convinces her to get the help she needs help. An author’s note and listed resources are great additions. Teens touched by depression may enjoy Maia’s story.—Stephanie Wilkes.

Rosenberg, Madelyn, and Wendy Wan-Long Shang. This is Just a Test. Scholastic, 2017. 256p.