Few And Far Between -Summary
A story summary, because I just realized I don't have one of those. Links lead to character profiles.
Genres: contemporary, literary fiction, drama, LGBTQ, teen romance, mystery (??)
Possible Trigger Warnings for the story: some suicidal thoughts/thoughts of self-harm, panic attacks, anxiety attacks, talk of weight/weight gaining disorder, anxiety/depression side affects in detail, some angst, what could look like internalized homophobia, and just regular homophobia.
Trigger warnings for this summary: mentions of above stuff only.
Nora Carce is fifteen. Life is pretty normal, but underneath all of the silver and gold paint, she feels like garbage. It's sophomore year, and the only friends she has are her brother's lunch table gang - a group of Juniors who don't even know her. And between the constant chore of dealing with anxiety and the fact that she and her brother are having issues, she kind of plans to keep it that way.
See, Nora's brother Carson is gay. Out and proud, takes-no-shit, has a boyfriend in high school gay. That's... Great and all. Nothing wrong with that.
Save for the fact that Nora's gay, too. Nora's gay, not so out, not so proud, and is kind of terrified of stepping on Carson's toes or upsetting her parents because they have two gay kids.
Crippling self-doubt and lowering self-worth are taking over her life, and she needs something to put her energy into. Hiding from her problems in the woods isn't really working. That is, until she finds a red camcorder in the woods, filled with videos of someone who used to be her best friend. Her best friend, Madison, who ran away with no trace over the summer.
The police say the case is closed. She's probably safe and fine, just not here. Madison's mom says that at this point, the memories are too painful to look at. So that leaves Nora with the camera.
She and Carson watch through every single video, as Madison and her 'nameless' blonde friend make one dumb decision after another. But the last two videos on the camera are... Something else. They seem to suggest that Madison didn't run away. That she and this other girl had been taken.
She wants to find Madison and the other girl, but she needs help. She's able to recruit Zoe Garcia; a beautiful, curious Latina who she definitely doesn't have a hopeless crush on. She also gets Sierra involved, who holds Nora's unspoken secret very loosely, and wouldn't really mind telling.
Carson Carce wants to help his sister. He'll do whatever it takes to ease her mind - even if that means helping find two girls who are strangers to him. But he also has absolutely no idea how to help. If he just knew what she was hiding from him , it might be easier.
However, he's gotten his hands tied into too many situations. He wants to help Nora. He wants to fix things with his amazing boyfriend, David, to whom he hasn't been so amazing.
But before he can really do any of that, he has to fix himself. He knows he's not taking care of himself properly, and he knows he's being forgetful about important things.
It's just getting harder to do on his own. And he wishes he could reach out for help - to Nora or maybe David or maybe his parents - but it's too late for that. He's been lying to them for too long. He has to do this on his own.
Between trying to help everyone else and cope with his mental health on his own, he's only getting worse.
