The Words We Keep by Erin Stewart

The Quick Cut: A teen girl struggles with her own mental health three months after catching her older sister reaching a low point with her own. A Real Review: Thank you to Delacorte Press for providing the ARC for an honest review. Mental health is still one of a few topics that is seen as inappropriate to talk about. Yet, it is something that many of us struggle with and have to learn about ourselves. What would you do if you felt your mental health slipping? Would you be comfortable asking for help or silently struggle? This is an important question for Lily. Three months after the night in the bathroom, Lily's older sister Alice is coming home again. Alice has always been adventurous and exciting, but now she's coming home with a bipolar diagnosis and a different attitude. Lily doesn't know how to interact with her sister and her new attitude. Making even harder? She's struggling with her own mental health and scared she's too much like Alice. Will she find a way to get help? Or reach a low point like her sister? I'm a big advocate for having mental health conversations in the open. It's by bringing these topics out in the open that we take the stigma away. Still, it can be a frightening topic and almost impossible to start the conversation comfortably. This book does a great job at opening up the conversation in a less confrontational way. Lily is not only dealing with the terrifying experience of catching her sister, but she is also dealing with new issues she never had before. Issues sleeping, feeling an urge to pick scabs, and others. As a teen, being labeled as weird can feel like a horrible sentence. Seeing her go through what she does if you've been there can feel relatable. It makes my experience of learning my own autism diagnosis feel less uncomfortable too. The downside to this book is it's slow start. It doesn't really take off until well over halfway through, but once it does it's hard to stop. The buildup was well worth it for that ending. A book that highlights the importance of talking about mental health. My rating: 4.25 out of 5