Nina is an only child in an emotionally distant family. She’s wrapped up in her boyfriend, Seth, who calls the shots in their relationship in a way she doesn’t challenge, but her closest connection seems to be the animals at the shelter where she’s doing community service for a cruel stunt she pulled on Seth’s former girlfriend. Nina discovers she’s pregnant right after Seth breaks up with her. She finds herself reflecting on a trip she took with her mom to Italy two years before, when she was 14. Her mom’s passion for art history and martyred female saints, who were often tortured or objects of obsession, informed the trip’s itinerary, and now they’re informing Nina’s AP English writing project, a series of pieces that reflect on being female. At first it’s an unconscious theme; but the more she thinks about that trip, the more she sharpens her perspective. “As long as there have been women,” her mom told her, “there have been ways to punish them for being women.” Nina sees it now; in her own life, in her mother’s life, too. A bold, singular literary work features matter- of-fact treatment of sexual pleasure, sexual objectification of women, and abortion, among other topics. Its depiction of a challenging mother-daughter relationship between two singular individuals is also notable, but it’s Nina’s transformation into a thoughtful, more confident young woman that drives the narrative. (Age 14 and older)

"When Nina Faye was fourteen, her mother told her there was no such thing as unconditional love. Nina believed her. Now Nina is sixteen. And she'll do anything for the boy she loves, just to prove she's worthy of him. But when he breaks up with her, Nina is lost. What is she if not a girlfriend? What is she made of? Broken-hearted, Nina tries to figure out what the conditions of love are. She's been volunteering at a high-kill animal shelter where she realizes that for dogs waiting to be adopted, love comes only to those with youth, symmetry, and quietness. She also ruminates on the strange, dark time her mother took her to Italy to see statues of saints who endured unspeakable torture because of their unquestioning devotion to the divine. Is this what love is? Raw, compelling, and unflinching, Elana K. Arnold's newest novel explores the darkest crevices of femaleness"--