Title: Scars Like Wings
Author: Erin Stewart
Pages: 384 Pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster’s UK Children’s
The Blurb
Everyone has scars. Some are just easier to see …
16-year-old Ava Lee is heading back to school one year after a house fire left her severely disfigured. She’s used to the names, the stares, the discomfort, but there’s one name she hates most of all: Survivor. What do you call someone who didn’t mean to survive? Who sometimes wishes she hadn’t?
When she meets a fellow survivor named Piper at therapy, Ava begins to feel like she’s not facing the nightmare alone. Piper helps Ava reclaim the pieces of Ava Before the Fire, a normal girl who kissed boys and sang on stage. But Piper is fighting her own battle, and when Ava almost loses her best friend, she must decide if the new normal she’s chasing has more to do with the girl in the mirror — or the people by her side.
The beautiful, life-affirming debut from Erin Stewart that’s being called the YA answer to Wonder. Perfect for fans of Jandy Nelson, Nicola Yoon and John Green.
The Review
Some books just have the power to hit home and hit home hard. Scars Like Wings was like a sucker-punch for me. The story revolves around the physical and emotional recovery of Ava Lee. Ava is a young girl who has been disfigured. She survived a house fire but the girl that she physically knew has long gone and she is struggling to come to terms with the Ava Lee she is post accident. What makes it all the more difficult is that she is a high school students and kids, well they can be cruel.
I hoovered Scars Like Wings. Partly because the writing was so damn good but mostly because I empathised with Aval Lee – I have a facial scar from a reaction to medication and whilst it is nowhere as severe as I imagine Ava Lee’s scarring to be but still the coming to terms with it was a long, hard road.
Steart dealt with this topic so beautifully. She showed the complicated web of people having to deal with a tragedy like this be that school friends, family, classmates, people on the street and the doctors. I really feel that Stewart gave a rounded perspective on this and one she should be very proud of.
Scars Like Wings will be shoved into the hands of all my students. It is a beautiful story that shows that beauty has many forms.
Scars Like Wings by Erin Stewart is available now.
For more information regarding Erin Stewart (@Erin_N_Stewart) please visit www.eringstewartbooks.com.
For more information regarding Simon & Schuster’s UK Children’s (@simonkids_UK) please visit www.simonand schuster.co.uk.
