Hold Still

LaCour, Nina. Hold Still. New York: Dutton Books, 2009.

Caitlin is starting her junior year of high school still reeling from her best friend's suicide only months before.  She finds Ingrid's diary under her bed and enters into her friend's world, trying to understand why she would choose death instead of life. Dylan, a new girl at school, befriends Caitlin and tries to pull her out of her depression and bring healing to her grieving heart.

This was an interesting book, but not a fast-moving one.  Grief cannot be rushed, and this book takes its time as it wanders along the path of Ingrid's suicide and Caitlin's recovery.  Caitlin's friendship with Dylan becomes her salvation and pulls her out of deep depression.  Through Dylan, Caitlin realizes that there are other people also grieving Ingrid's death and that she can be a help to those people. 

I appreciated Caitlin's choices as she begins to heal.  I was glad for her friendship with Dylan.  This is not a happy book, so it doesn't necessarily have a Disney-style ending, but it was interesting.