To Kenna, everything is a potential tool for self-harm: a razor blade, a safety pin, a pencil eraser rubbed fast against her skin.

When Kenna is found cutting herself in the school bathroom-

with the blade from her pencil sharpener-

she’s put under a psychiatric watch for seventy-two hours. In the facility Kenna meets other kids like her: her roommate, Donya, who’s there for her fifth time; the birdlike Skylar; and Jag, a boy cute enough to make her forget her problems…for a moment.

In this dark, haunting debut, Madeleine Kuderick creates a vivid world with beautiful, sparse verse that draws you in from page one and stays with you long after you’ve put it down.