How to Live Without You

Six years after their parents’ divorce forced two Black sisters to part ways—and three months after one of them goes missing—their once-deep bond sustains a search in Everett’s (Some Other Now) mental health–centered novel. Reserved Emmy, now 17, has spent the last several years living with the teens’ mother in San Francisco, while stubborn, wild-spirited Rose, two years older, stayed in Riverwood, Ohio, with their father, who lives with mild agoraphobia. Emmy can’t believe that her sister would run off without telling her, so she returns to Ohio for the summer, seeking to “draw [Rose] back to me through that magnetic pull we share, that inexplicable bond of sisters who are also best friends.” As Emmy reconnects with hometown friends, hoping to find clues about Rose’s disappearance, she begins to learn that her sister is a much different person than Emmy has believed her to be. With the reluctant help of once-jovial childhood friend Levi, Emmy begins to look for clues Rose left behind on an Instagram account, slowly coming to terms with how separate their lives have been. Told in a delicately introspective first-person voice and including mentions of depression, suicide, and stigma, Everett’s novel traverses the many effects of untreated mental illness. An author’s note concludes. Ages 14–up. Agent: Suzie Townsend, New Leaf Literary & Media. (May)