Faking Normal

From the outside, Alexi Littrell is an ordinary high-school junior in small-town Tennessee. Inside, she is hiding an assault she has told no one about, and when the memories rise she digs her nails into the back of her neck until it bleeds, a private way to cope that she keeps carefully covered. Then Bodee Lennox, the quiet boy whose mother has just died, moves into her family's home, and the two damaged kids slowly become each other's safe harbor. Through crossword clues, song lyrics scrawled on a desk, and a friendship neither expected, Alexi inches toward naming what happened to her. Stevens keeps the everyday warmth and humor of teen life on the page alongside the hurt.