You’re Breaking My Heart
by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich
Middle School, High School    Levine/Levine Querido    304 pp.
1/24    9781646141814    $19.99

Fourteen-year-old Harriet is convinced she’s responsible for her older brother Tunde’s tragic death and wishes more than anything that she could take back the cruel words she spoke to him that fateful morning. Others’ efforts to surround Harriet with community (her mother transfers her to her cousin Nikka’s school) and to look out for her (Tunde’s friend Luke promised to) prove less than helpful. Harriet’s solace is swimming, but that small joy is shattered when she begins to see her brother’s face in the pool and is pulled underwater by an unknown force. New classmate Alisia seems to be an ally, but there’s something strange about her. In an attempt to discover the truth, Nikka and Luke join Harriet in an underground journey into a fantasy world. As the line between what’s real and what isn’t begins to blur in Harriet’s mind, she dreams of a new world for herself—one where she is forgiven. In this moving work, Rhuday-Perkovich has created characters whose internal struggles are palpable and an intriguing narrative with both tension and introspection that delves into themes of guilt, redemption, and the possibility of second chances.

Pubissue-From the March/April 2024 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.