Girl Against the Universe by Paula Stokes hit me in the heart like someone slapped me. The basic premise of this book is that a girl blames herself for numerous accidents that happened in her past and thereby refuses to take part in any social events, fearing that something bad might happen. (Consider this a form of PTSD.) She goes to a psychologist who gives her challenges to complete her goal. (This is referred to as "shrink homework" throughout the novel.)
Usually, I am not a realistic fiction reader, so I was quite skeptical of this at first. But as I read, I noticed things. I noticed how Stokes writes thoughts like speech. I noticed how she writes about one person in a vastly different way than she might write about another. Stokes doesn't write in the traditional way where the protagonist gets SO CLOSE only to have it all collapse in front of her. No, Stokes writes it so that the protagonist climbs so high the accident only makes her see more truth than ever before.
No, I cannot even begin to imagine what it must be like to think that everything is my fault, so I will not pretend that I can. I have never been to a psychologist, so I can't even pretend I know about that. I can only say that Paula Stokes can, and she uses it brilliantly. It is a story of overcoming pain without being a tear-jerker. I wish that I could simply say how great it is, but I cannot. I can only recommend this book to you, and hope that when you read it you get the same meaning out of it as me.
