Hoover ( It Ends With Us, 2016, etc.) does an excellent job of revealing the subtle differences between healthy teenage rebellion and clinical depression, and Merit’s aha moment is worthy of every trophy in her collection.

And when Merit takes drastic measures to be heard, the fallout is both worse and much better than she feared. In fact, he and Luck are the only people in the house who recognize Merit’s quirks for what they really are-cries for help. She can’t sit through dinner without starting a fight she’s been skipping school for days and when she decides to give her whole family the silent treatment, Sagan is the only one who notices. She’s simultaneously intrigued and repulsed by Luck, who annoys her with his questions but is also her confidant. She's conflicted by her feelings for Sagan, who leaves intriguing sketches (illustrated by Adams) around the house for her to decipher. So why is everyone so angry at her? Merit has a love/hate relationship with her sister. Soon they have another houseguest, Luck, whose connection to the family makes Merit even more convinced she’s living in a madhouse. But Honor seems to have a fetish for terminally ill boys, so it’s a surprise to Merit when Sagan, who is perfectly healthy, kisses Merit after mistaking her for her sister-and then reveals that he’s living in their house. Merit is less accomplished than her identical twin sister, Honor, so she likes to buy used trophies to celebrate her failures. No one in her family is religious, so her brother Utah updates the church marquee every day with fun facts instead of Bible verses. She lives in a converted church with her father, stepmother, and siblings, and although her parents have been divorced for years, her mother still lives in the basement, struggling with social anxiety. To Merit Voss, the white picket fence around her house is the only thing normal about the family it contains. With the help of unusual houseguests, a teenage girl who tries to rebel by airing her family’s dirty laundry cleans up her act instead.

Colleen hoover books without merit