Don't Fail Me Now

June 29, 2015
After Michelle’s drug-addicted mother is arrested, 17-year-old Michelle is left to fend for her two younger siblings. Again. With virtually no one to help them, Michelle (who is half-black) feels lost until her previously unknown (and “the-color-of-tracing-paper white”) half-sister, Leah, shows up with her stepbrother, Tim. Buck Devereaux—the long-absent father that Michelle, her siblings, and Leah all share—is dying, and he wants to see them. After some persuasion, all five step-siblings pile into Michelle’s broken-down station wagon to travel from Baltimore to California. Buck’s abandonment permeates the complicated getting-to-know-you conversations that happen along the way, helping everyone bond them as they face major obstacles on the road. LaMarche (Like No Other) spends substantial time setting up Michelle’s family’s difficulties, so the story initially stalls before the road trip gets underway. Michelle’s narration can be surprisingly formal (“I’d like to think that I’m owed this one transgression after so many years of playing by my mom’s hypocritical rules, especially since my motives are mostly pure”), but her budding relationship with Tim adds a sweet-natured romantic dimension to this sibling-centered story. Ages 12–up.