Brace yourself for some emotional damage.

I picked up The Atlas of Us by Kristin Dwyer because A) she’s friends with some of my author friends, B) she’s a K-pop fan, and C) I’d invited her to be part of a couple panels in Seattle due to facts A and B. It was a great decision to say the least.

The Atlas of Us [Buy Bookshop Amazon] follows a girl named Atlas on a special hiking trip. Her father died, and she got into trouble while failing to process her grief. She opts to work off some community service hours by participating in a trail rehabilitation project. She and a group of other so-called ‘bad teens’ are making a trail hikeable again over the course of a few days.

On this trail, everyone goes by nicknames to kinda protect their real identity. Therefore, Atlas becomes Maps for this trip. While they are working, this group of teens gets to know each other better, but they still have their secrets. Maps has a big one about her dad, but so does King, the boy she’s developing feelings for.

This book is so daggum precious. The writing is beautiful. The subtle K-pop references are perfection (Sugar = Suga and Key is Kristin’s bias from SHINee). The tension and emotion is high. The popsicle heirarchy just made me giggle so dang much. The depth in showing this girl processing the grief and anger of losing her father so young is so raw and honest. *Sigh* It’s such a good book.

Get yourself a copy immediately, and get Kristin’s first book, Some Mistakes Were Made [Buy Bookshop Amazon].