Published: 2021
Author: Cory Anderson
Genres: Realistic Fiction, Young Adult, Thriller, Fiction, Mystery, Contemporary, Mystery Thriller, Romance, Family
Audience (Grade Levels): High School; Grades 9-12
Number of Stars: 4-Stars
Goodreads Link: What Beauty There Is
Triggers: Financial insecurity, food insecurity, suicide, smoking, trauma, murder, drugs, kidnapping
Review By: Wendy Scalfaro
Publisher’s Summary:
Winter. The sky is dark. It is cold enough to crack bones.
Jack Morton has nothing left. Except his younger brother, Matty, who he’d do anything for. Even die for. Now with their mother gone, and their funds quickly dwindling, Jack needs to make a choice: lose his brother to foster care, or find the drug money that sent his father to prison. He chooses the money.
Ava Bardem lives in isolation, a life of silence. For seventeen years her father has controlled her fate. He has taught her to love no one. Trust no one. Now Victor Bardem is stalking the same money as Jack. When he picks up Jack’s trail, Ava must make her own wrenching choice: remain silent or help the brothers survive.
Choices. They come at a price.
Review:
This book is Anderson’s debut novel and is absolutely gorgeous and heartbreaking. It reads like a thriller movie with some romance thrown in for interest. The novel is deeply atmospheric. I could almost feel the bitter cold deep in my bones and see my plume of breath. The story is told through alternating points of view, with Ava’s voice opening each chapter, looking back on events that Jack tells as they happen. Following a confrontation at their school in which Jack rescues her, she says, “Stay away from me.” Jack has too much on his mind to worry about her at the moment. His mother has just died and child protective services is on his doorstep. But soon Jack and his little brother are on the run and Ada is helping them. She has to hide her efforts from her overbearing father, who was also responsible for Jack’s father being imprisoned. The trio face horrible conditions and even worse odds while they fight to recover a stash of money that Jack’s father hid. Ada and Jack grow close and draw strength from each other, but there’s a looming feeling of dread as they struggle to survive. The developing relationship between the three characters is my favorite part. The reader knows that Ada is hiding her father’s intentions from the boys, but we root for her to do the right thing anyway. Give this title to thrillers and suspense readers as well as fans of real-life dramas.
Classroom & Curricular Connections:
- English Language Arts / Creative Writing (Atmospheric Setting & Structural Dual-Narratives): This debut novel provides an extraordinary template for analyzing literary atmosphere. High school educators can use Anderson’s visceral description of the brutal winter landscape to teach students how environment can act as an active antagonist, while studying how Ava’s retrospective, poetic framing contrasts with Jack’s immediate, real-time survival timeline to build tension.
- Social Studies / Sociology (Socioeconomic Margins & Foster Care Infrastructure): The narrative directly confronts realistic hardships like severe food insecurity, cycles of poverty, parent incarceration, and the desperate lengths adolescents go to avoid separation by foster care. This makes it a great anchor text for discussing societal safety nets, rural poverty, and economic disparities in contemporary America.
- Social-Emotional Learning (Agency, Trauma-Informed Decisions, and Intergenerational Legacy): Centered heavily on the burdens of family expectations and dangerous choices, the novel is a deep launchpad for SEL discussions. Students can explore the concepts of choice and consequence, focusing on how both Jack and Ava must actively choose whether to repeat their parents’ destructive cycles or carve out a path of mutual protection and moral bravery.
Readalikes
- Be Not Far from Me by Mindy McGinnis
- The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah
- If I Lie by Corrine Jackson
- We Can Be Heroes by Kyrie McCauley
- The Stolen Kingdom by Jillian Boehme
