What Remains by Helene Dunbar

What Remains by Helene Dunbar - 259 pages

It's alwasys been Cal, Spencer, and Lizzie -- best friends since first grade.  Cal and Spencer have devoted themselves to making sure Lizzie is okay.  Then everything changes in an instant.  Lizzie is dead.  Cal required a heart transplant that takes away his life plan of playing baseball.  Now Cal must figure out how to deal with the loss of Lizzie and the aftereffects of the transplant.

I've now read all of Helene Dunbar's books that have been released.  (Another book comes out later this fall.)  I think this is my favorite of them so far.  While once again it deals with topics that are not happy, this book seems to me to be more optimistic than the others.

These Gentle Wounds by Helene Dunbar

These Gentle Wounds by Helene Dunbar - 308 pages

Gordie is living with his half-brother Kevin.  Kevin is the only one able to keep Gordie safe and focused on getting his life on track after the horrible day their mother tried to kill Gordie by driving into a lake.  But just when things seem to start to be getting better, Gordie's father comes back into the picture.  Now Gordie is falling into a tailspin . . . .

While this was not a happy book to read, I did enjoy it.  It was well written.  I think it does a good job of showing the aftereffects of abuse and how it stays with a person forever. 

Boomerang by Helene Dunbar

Boomerang by Helene Dunbar - 314 pages

Sean Woodhouse has returned home.  For five years they thought he had been kidnapped.  They didn't know that he had simply run away.  They don't know that he only returned to get his inheritance from his grandparents so that he could save the best friend he's had the past five years.  But Sean didn't know how difficult it was going to be to return and that he would start questioning everything from the past.

This was an interesting book to read.  While it was not a happy book to read, I did enjoy figuring things out as Sean did.  I would definitely recommend this book to teens.