This isn’t a casual read. Although you probably guessed that from the whole teen pregnancy theme. What makes it even more intense is that George Ella Lyon’s HOLDING ON TO ZOE is psychologically intense from the very first page. The narrator, Jules, has a mother who is too focused on her own reputation to even believe that her daughter is pregnant, and her boyfriend, while first proposing they get married, calls the next day from the bus station to tell her his mom freaked and is sending him to live with his uncle. Even Jules’ best friend Reba offers advice and support — on “getting rid of it.”

But Jules feels more attached to the baby growing inside her than she ever has to anyone else she’s loved. She feels like it’s destiny, like fate is intervening in her life to give her this child. But when she goes to the doctor to a) confirm her pregnancy so her mom will believe her and b) make sure the baby is healthy, she finds out something that shakes her world yet again: she has an ectopic pregnancy. The fetus is growing inside one of her fallopian tubes and needs to be removed to save Jules’ life.