After a climbing accident led to a permanent injury and splintered their once unbreakable bond, a brother, a sister, and their best friend hike the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) together in this marvelous contemporary YA novel about love--for others and for the land.
Ever since Hank's (18, white) climbing accident, his half-sister, Molly (17, Metís, "half-white"), has tiptoed around him. The duo's best friend, Tray (18, Metís), has been secretly crushing on Molly--who blames him for Hank's fall--while continuing to burn sweetgrass for Hank's healing. Hank simply wishes both would see that he's "not broken, just changed." The trio decides to hike the PCT together, and over its hundreds of miles, they both prod and soothe each other's mental wounds. Along the way, they "adopt" the sunnily extroverted Brynn, a self-identifying "mid-fat" girl (compared to Molly, who Brynn calls "small fat"). Brynn has wounds of her own and, when the quartet stops in an "only mildly depressing" town, flirting and singing cement momentous new friendships.
A Constellation of Minor Bears by Jen Ferguson (Those Pink Mountain Nights) poetically portrays the messiness and exhilaration of love (of all kinds) against the backdrop of the PCT's breathtaking vistas. The teens' tender hearts are revealed through a lyrical, multi-POV narrative that dips seamlessly into spectacularly funny moments. Tray, to whom it's "important not to pass as a settler," stunningly connects their adventure to Indigenous star stories, to song, to the land. Ferguson roots her novel in current teen struggles, deftly including parental pressure and a fat-positive mindset. A striking story in which accountability coexists with love, and growth is as important as forgiveness. --Samantha Zaboski, freelance editor and reviewer