Brave New Girl — Louisa Luna

A fourteen-year-old trying to find her way in the world, Doreen is as much an outcast at school as she is at home. Marginalized by her peers, misunderstood by her parents, and mourning the loss of her older brother who disappeared when she was just a child, Doreen finds solace in her fierce love of music and in her best friend, Ted.

But when her older sister begins dating a bewildering twenty-one-year-old named Matthew, Doreen must confront feelings she never knew she possessed. Forced into adulthood kicking and screaming (not to mention swearing), Doreen ultimately impels her troubled family to forge a new understanding of the world--and, maybe more surprisingly, of one another.

It's bad enough; it's worse when you have only one friend in the world and a family that just doesn't get it. This breathless coming of age novel explores the alienation of adolescence and introduces a bold and shimmering new voice in fiction.