Watching Traffic

August 22, 2016
In her first novel, Ozkowski captures the momentousness of the summer after high school. Eighteen-year-old Emily is spending these months in her small Canadian hometown, working for a catering company that mainly serves funerals. Her friends Lincoln and Melissa are heading to Australia and college on scholarship, respectively, but Emily is aimless. Even though it's been 15 years, everyone in town still thinks of Emily as "Suicide Baby," after her mother killed herself in a hotel room with Emily by her side. When she begins dating Tyler, new in town from Toronto, his unawareness of her personal history sets Emily free, allowing her to regain some faith and confidence, and repair her relationships with her friends, especially Melissa, who is trying to accept that she's a lesbian. While the plot slides into melodrama on occasion, Ozkowski's thoughtful novel covers substantial emotional ground with authenticity. The burden of potential and the simultaneous blessing and curse of facing an abundance of possibilities at once are themes that will resonate with readers facing the uncertainty of their own futures. Ages 14âup.

July 1, 2016
An unexpected romance opens up new possibilities for a young woman who's just graduated from high school in this debut novel set in small-town Ontario. Wry, smart, 18-year-old Emily Robinson is already missing her best friends, Lincoln and Melissa, who are soon bound for Australia and Halifax respectively. She's spent years trying to live down the notoriety that came from being found covered in blood in a motel room with her mother's dead body after she committed suicide when Emily was 3. When she meets a handsome newcomer to town, Tyler, she glimpses ways that she might rewrite both her past and her future. The tightly woven friendship among Emily, Lincoln, and Melissa brims with funny dialogue and is convincingly complicated in ways both platonic and not; the trio's habit of drinking heavily together often only exacerbates these issues. Emily's attraction to Tyler is magnetic and often steamy, but, sweetly and realistically, it's also more than just physical, which will have readers rooting for them. It's made clear that one character is gay, and though there is little specific mention of their ethnic backgrounds, the descriptions of the appearances of several of the main characters imply that they are white. A short, slice-of-life-style story that fans of literary fiction will find satisfying. (Fiction. 14-18)

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September 1, 2016

Gr 10 Up-Everyone in Cavanaugh, Ontario, knows that Emily's mother killed herself in the local motel and left three-year-old Emily behind, covered in blood. The saccharine sympathy of the adults in town is suffocating, even worse than the cruelty of the young, who call Emily "suicide baby." It is the summer after her senior year of high school, and the teen's friends are leaving "Canada's Armpit" for college and travel. Emily isn't sure of her next move. She worries she'll be trapped in Cavanaugh forever, cutting the crusts off sandwiches at Pamela's Country Catering and watching traffic from the highway overpass. Emily begins her summer binge-drinking at parties, where she meets the new guy in town, Tyler. When Tyler asks Emily about her family, she must choose between the freedom of anonymity and the courage to be honest. The protagonist, her eccentric grandma, her distant father, and her intense best friend Melissa could easily have been cliched. However, each character in this debut novel is engaging and fully fleshed out. Readers will enjoy Emily's travails and a surprising subplot featuring Melissa. Ozkowski adeptly captures the absurdity and magic of the last summer before college. VERDICT Recommended for YA and new adult collections at public libraries.-Carly Wiggins, McNeese State University, LA

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