Say the Word

Garsee, Jeannine. Say the Word. New York: Bloomsbury, 2009.

Shawna has tried to be the perfect daughter. She works hard at school, helps out at home, and follows all the rules.  Everything is fine until Shawna's mom's wife calls to tell Shawna that her mom has had a stroke and may be dying. Shawna's life rapidly spirals out of control in the midst of a tense funeral, the unchanged will, and her father's insistence that her mother's lifestyle was very, very wrong. In the end, Shawna must decide between what is right and what is easy.

This was an interesting read.  I was intrigued to see a story told from the perspective of a child with a gay parent, and I was glad for Shawna's actions toward the end of the story.  This story didn't necessarily have a happy ending, but it did have a satisfying one, and the reader gets to watch Shawna wrestle with some tough decisions.