We Are So Good at Smiling

Blurb from SLJ

After her parents discover a list Whimsy wrote of ways to stop breathing, she is in the hospital again for clinical depression. She meets fellow patient Faerry, a boy who she perceives as having magical qualities. They subsequently discover they are neighbors, connecting over their intense poetry and their shared experience of being the only two Black kids around. No one understands they are sinking while they are smiling; when you are bruise-less, things are harder to explain. As they begin their healing journey together, they recognize their lives are interwoven by past trauma. 

The atmospheric imagery and metaphors throughout have such a strong and remarkable undercurrent in this novel-in-verse. The anthropomorphic forest evolves into setting as character. 

The author includes resources for mental health, a glossary of the fairy tales and folklore embodied within, and a playlist for Whimsy and Faerry.