Alone Together

By: Sarah J. Donovan

Narrated by: Kasi Hollowell

Sadie Carter's life is a mess, as wavy and tangled as her unruly hair. At 15, she is barely surviving the chaos of her large Catholic family. When one sister becomes pregnant and another is thrown out, her unemployed dad hides his depression, and her mom hides a secret. Sadie, the peacekeeper and rule-follower, has had enough. The empty refrigerator, years of hand-me-downs, and all the secrets have to stop. She longs for something more and plans her escape.

However, getting arrested was not her plan. Falling in love was not her plan. With the help of three mysterious strangers - a cop, a teacher, and a cute boy - maybe Sadie will find the strength to defy the rules and do the unexpected.

Told in verse, Sarah J. Donovan's debut Alone Together has secrets, romance, struggle, sin, and redemption, all before Sadie blows out her 16 candles. It's a courageously honest look at growing up in a big family.

©2018 Sarah J. Donovan (P)2018 Sarah J. Donovan

A Poignant Journey of Finding a Voice

Donovan delivers a YA novel with a unique voice in YA fiction—a young woman living in the suburbs but also grappling with poverty and the complexities of her large family.

I appreciate how Donovan uncovers an often-silent voice in our nation’s high schools—the voice of suburban income insecurity that teens work to hide so carefully. She also includes feminist voices in the text, as the main character, Sadie, begins to better understand the world outside her own by reading a range of women writing from their cultural contexts.

The audiobook’s haunting voice captures the poetic language and listeners will enjoy hearing Sadie gain her own voice and path in the world.

Beautifully written

Sarah’s writing shows that she has a firm grasp on adolescence. The book is a beautiful book in verse. I found myself thinking about the characters long after I had closed the text. Sadie lives in a Catholic household, and she is struggling emotionally. She is the only one of the eleven people in her family to sit at the breakfast table, and one of the few siblings who hasn’t left the family altogether. She is the peacemaker and is sick of the empty fridge and bad choices that others seem to make for her. I think that Sadie has a life that many young people will relate to. She is left wondering about the ways in which people exist alone together. This is a great read, and I will be using it (in part and in whole) in my classes.