The Beauty of Us

by Farzana Doctor

Overview

September 1984, Thornton College private school.

After 15-year-old Zahabiya’s father remarries, she can’t wait to leave home and convinces him to send her away to boarding school. But will she fit in? She joins a clique of smart students but isn’t sure if she measures up or how to read the mixed messages from a guy she’s crushing on.

Seventeen-year-old Leesa has been at Thornton since middle school after her parents’ messy divorce. She’s been climbing the school’s social ladder with equal measures of meanness and manipulation. She’s also guarding a big secret that she has to work overtime to keep from her friends.

Fresh out of university, this is Nahla’s first real teaching job, and she’s drowning. She has her distractions though: the flirty art teacher and a cryptic notebook left behind by her deceased predecessor, Mademoiselle Leblanc.

Zahabiya and her friends — all racialized girls and victims of Leesa’s bullying — uncover Leesa’s secret. But can they help Leesa? Nahla, too, is embroiled in her own mystery, assisted by Mademoiselle Leblanc’s ghost. Each is indelibly changed by what they learn.

Masterfully crafted, The Beauty of Us is a gripping novel about surviving hardship, the power of friendship, and growing up.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781770417694
Publisher:	ECW Press
Publication date:	09/17/2024
Edition description:	No Edition
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.69(d)
Age Range:	15 - 18 Years

About the Author

Farzana Doctor is a Tkaronto-based author, activist, and psychotherapist. She has written four critically acclaimed novels, a poetry collection, and a self-care workbook for helpers and activists. Doctor received the prestigious Freedom to Read Award in 2023, and in 2020, Seven was chosen as an Amnesty International Book Club’s Reader’s Choice Pick.

The Beauty of Us is her first YA novel. Learn more at www.linktr.ee/farzanadoctor.

Editorial Reviews

This novel’s quiet genius lies in how it reminds us that we are all always recovering and starting over; this is a story for everyone. A moving and seriously empathetic novel, as faceted as a jewel.” — Thea Lim, author of An Ocean of Minutes

“Tightly plotted and vibrant, The Beauty of Us is an important exploration and condemnation of the abuses and dangers faced in teenage girlhood and third-culture experiences.” — SJ Sindu, author of The Goth House Experiment

“Undeniably cinematic.” — Catherine Hernandez, author and screenwriter of Scarborough the book and film

“The author successfully gives distinctive voices to all three protagonists, sharing their compelling family stories and struggles, their everyday losses, and their triumphs in the face of bigger ones... Thoughtfully explores crushes, crushed dreams, and friendships.” — Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

2024-07-04
In a boarding school in Ontario in 1984, three young women wrestle with personal histories and present-day challenges.

This novel, set at elite Thornton College, is told from three perspectives: those of young French teacher Nahla, who’s originally from Beirut, new student Zahabiya, who’s Indian Canadian, and wealthy senior Leesa, who’s white. Nahla is hired for her first teaching position following the sudden death of Sylvie, the school’s last French teacher. Zahabiya, an outlier in her family, is grappling with loss, a new family dynamic, and the fact that she’s not as well off as some of her classmates. Queen bee Leesa targets Zahabiya and her newfound group of racially diverse friends. Beneath the surface of their ordinary school lives—including homework and love interests—lies something more. Sylvie’s soul seems to be lurking and trying to say something to Nahla, who also finds a mysterious notebook that Sylvie left behind. Leesa, meanwhile, is hiding a big secret that implodes, affecting all their lives. The author successfully gives distinctive voices to all three protagonists, sharing their compelling family stories and struggles, their everyday losses, and their triumphs in the face of bigger ones. Over the course of the academic year, the two students and their new teacher come to terms with their own conceptions of family, self-confidence, and love and what it means to fit in.

Thoughtfully explores crushes, crushed dreams, and friendships. (resources)(Fiction. 15-18)

Kirkus Reviews