Everything Is Fine. By Ann Dee Ellis

Amazon.com:

Stuck at home caring for her severely depressed mother and abandoned by her father, Mazzy has only the day-to-day dramas of her neighborhood to keep her busy. But between flirting with the boy next door and worrying about the fact that she's flat-chested, Mazzy has to face the fact that her mom is emotionally paralyzed by a family tragedy. As readers delve into the story, they'll eventually discover what it was that tore Mazzy's family apart, and they'll see what it takes to put it back together.

Despite its serious subject matter, Mazzy brings humor to the trying age of adolescence and gives readers just the kind of awkward, troubled, and endearing character they will gladly embrace.

Review:

This book was strange it was hard for me to comprehend. Though, everything made more sense after finding out about the horrible tragedy this family went through. Still something was off. I think it was the character of Mazzy. At first I thought maybe she had regressed backwards in maturity after the tragedy but after reading a bit about before it happened it seemed she was still kind of the same. I found it strange that she karate chopped people when she was upset or didn't know what to do, but found out this is something she also did before as well. I sort of pinpointed her around 6th-7th grade. I don't know. And wearing oranges in your bra multiple times, I sort of felt like she was trying to get attention with some of the strange things she did.

The situation the family was in was just hard to read as well. A catatonic mother and an absent family basically leaving this child to take care of herself. Thankfully she had neighbors to check on her when she allowed it. It was just really hard to read. Thankfully there were bits of humor sprinkled through the book, Mazzy's opinion on Oprah or her chats with her neighbor Colby.
One thing I really liked about the book were Mazzy's artwork. Basically abstract art (smudges etc) that was pretty interesting to see.

I felt like the ending was going in a hopeful direction but it wasn't really enough for me personally. None the less, this was an interesting and emotional book.

Everything Is Fine was released March 1st.

2.5/5 Stars
Review copy received from publisher