Eyes Open
by Lyn Miller-Lachmann
High School    Carolrhoda Lab    352 pp.
5/24    9798765610114    $19.99

In this verse novel, Sónia is living to the fullest as much as a fifteen-year-old girl can under the Salazar dictatorship in 1960s Portugal. She writes free-verse poetry, though the nuns at school deride it; loves her protester boyfriend, though he is imprisoned; and works in her family’s restaurant, until they lose everything for hiring a “banned musician who sang a banned song.” Sónia’s world grows bleaker and more volatile as friends abandon her and her parents treat her with hostility, blaming her for their misfortunes. As Sónia seeks respite in other friendships and relationships, she tries to determine how she wants to live: as a protester against injustice, or safely and comfortably. Miller-Lachmann’s free-verse poetry captures the exquisite and the harrowing, the potent longing in romantic moments as well as the physicality in brutal ones: beatings from Sónia’s father and from police, the blistering burn from a workplace injury. Both the verse format and the intensity of the protagonist’s lived experiences and choices make this story about the power of teenage resistance a page-turner. Back matter includes an author’s note with historical background, discussion questions, a glossary, and further reading.

From the July/August 2024 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.