Imagine Us Happy

“I don’t want to disappoint anyone in search of a happy ending... this isn’t that kind of story,” narrator Stella warns at the opening of this novel by Yu (Four Weeks, Five People). After enduring a rough sophomore year that culminated with a mental breakdown, Stella is unmotivated to begin her junior year. Then she becomes smitten with Kevin, a brilliant student in her philosophy class, who, much to Stella’s surprise, returns her affection. Kevin is passionate, intense, and like no boy Stella has known. Soon, being with him becomes more important than seeing her friends and doing homework, despite Kevin’s increasing bouts of anger and possessiveness. Stella finds herself sacrificing important things for the sake of keeping him happy. If Yu’s jumbling of chronology makes the ending anticlimactic (scenes of the relationship’s disastrous final stages are juxtaposed against happier early days), it also drives home a point about the pitfalls of falling in love hard and fast. Stella’s desire, angst, and yearning to cling to an unhealthy relationship are convincingly and empathically conveyed, and readers with a hearty appetite for romance and drama will eagerly join Stella on her tumultuous journey. Ages 12–up. [em]Agent: Laura Dail, Laura Dail Agency. (Oct.) [/em]