What happens when the shadows cast by your past shroud your present in a darkness so impenetrable that you can no longer see what’s in front of you? With acute perception and a haunting grace, Julie Buntin’s Marlena looks at the ways in which a person’s past can influence their every moment, waking or asleep. This is the story of a woman haunted by who she was as a fifteen year old, and specifically what she did and did not do before the death of her best friend. As she reveals who she is now, through her progress and setbacks, guilt weighs her down in spite of the little victories that motivate her to continue moving on with her life. What makes this book so powerful is its confidence and commitment in lingering in the spaces between the Truth and the claims our protagonist says are true, and the various perspectives of what feel true to her and to those in the story she’s telling. The period in adolescence when you're desperate to belong, and perhaps more than that, that stab of loneliness that twists within you, that propels you to suture yourself to another person, a person you idolize but may not recognize as an actual person, is captured so deftly, you’ll shudder in recognition. Buntin is a freaking m a s t e r at weaving the past and present together, braiding multiple strands so that you're tied up in them—but don’t worry, you’ll be glad you’re fingers are knotted to this book.