Our Shouts Echo
by Jade Adia
High School    Hyperion    416 pp.
8/24    9781368090117    $18.99

For her capstone project on the last day of school, Niarah, who is “walking around life with a full plate of anxiety plus a side of depression and a scoop of OCD for dessert,” must present an object that represents where she will be in ten years. But she does not have much hope for the future, so she pulls out a bottle of iodine from her survival kit and explains how it will save her in what she sees as “the inevitable doomsday scenario.” Her presentation gains her the name Doomsday Girl and a trip to the guidance counselor’s office, where she learns that she is in danger of failing sophomore year if she does not complete her capstone project and PE hours. As an alternative to summer school, Niarah joins a hiking club led by the very handsome Mac Torres. Despite herself, Niarah opens up to Mac, who offers to help her build her fallout shelter and count it toward her hours. Through Niarah’s prickly, often darkly humorous, and eventually more vulnerable voice in her survival guide entries, text messages, and interactions with others, readers see a well-realized example of how it feels to be a teenager navigating the world with depression and suicidal thoughts. Mental health and related resources are appended.

From the ">September/October 2024 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.