But Flannery remains precocious and independent, a pragmatic heroine with a fierce attitude, quiet patience, and indomitable survival instinct. This does not lessen the story's impact as Moore clearly articulates the 'profoundly unfair' struggle of the invisible poor, the impossible weight of a child trying to keep a family together, and the brutal torments of high school, including one especially horrific bullying scene involving a used condom. In her first book for teens, Moore (author of February, longlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2010) forsakes quotation marks to denote dialogue, creating the sense that Flannery is remembering and retelling her story at a distance. Flannery's story unfurls almost as a stream of consciousness narrative, with passages frequently interrupted by and interspersed with frenetic memories. At school, Flannery is mooning over her childhood pal, Tyrone, and chasing down her best friend, Amber, who has ditched her for a controlling boyfriend. Her single mother is trying to raise the 16-year-old and her thoughtful-yet-infuriating younger brother, Felix, without enough money to buy school supplies or keep the electricity on. It is a novel whose spell no reader will be able to resist. Written in Lisa Moore’s exuberant and inimitable style, Flannery is by turns heartbreaking and hilarious, empowering and harrowing - often all on the same page. But a series of shattering events makes her realize that real-life love is far more potent - and potentially damaging - than any fairy-tale prescription. When Flannery decides to make a love potion for her entrepreneurship project, rumors that it actually works go viral, and she suddenly has a hot commodity on her hands.

And her best-friend-since-forever, Amber, has fallen for a guy who is making her forget all about the things she’s always cared most about - Flannery included - leading Amber down a dark and dangerous path of her own. Her little brother, Felix, is careening out of control. Her mother, Miranda, can’t pay the heating bills, let alone buy Flannery’s biology book. And Tyrone’s vanishing act may have darker causes than she realizes. Which is a problem, since he and Flannery are partners for the entrepreneurship class that she needs to graduate. But Tyrone has grown from a dorky kid into an outlaw graffiti artist, the rebel-with-a-cause of Flannery’s dreams, literally too cool for school. She’s been in love with Tyrone O’Rourke since the days she still believed in Santa Claus. Sixteen-year-old Flannery Malone has it bad.

A spellbinding story about chasing love, fighting family, losing friends and starting all over again, from the internationally acclaimed Lisa Moore.

Flannery lisa moore