About the Book

This voice-y YA novel follows a girl who struggles to find hope with her sisters, her best friend, and a new crush, as the country navigates a pandemic & protests--perfect for fans of Darius the Great is Not Okay.

Book Synopsis

A girl struggles to find hope with her sisters, her best friend, and a new crush, as the country navigates a pandemic & protests against police brutality, in this timely coming-of-age novel perfect for fans of Darius the Great is Not Okay.

I just want to enjoy being alive. Can't that be enough?

Tia doesn't know how much more she can take. Her middle sister Mel is in a coma after a mental health crisis, a global pandemic has stolen her senior year, and racial tension is high across the country, following the murder of another unarmed Black man by a police officer. Her best friend, Drew, seems to think the answer is speaking up and out. But Tia? She's just trying not to fall apart.

So when her oldest sister, the usually calm and collected Alexis, invites Tia to stay at her place, Tia jumps at the chance to escape her house and her despair, if only for a little while. Surrounded by a new city, a new romance with a cute girl, and a new pandemic puppy, Tia starts to feel a glimmer of light in the darkness. But the darkness lingers. Will Mel finally wake up? Is Alexis as steady as she seems? Will Drew forgive Tia for stepping back, instead of stepping up? Is love, in all its forms, enough to sustain her, or will illness and injustice define her life?

Stifled by unrest and uncertainty at every turn, Tia will have to figure out how to keep from losing her mind and losing hope.

Review Quotes

"Erika Turner's When We Almost Came Undone is a gorgeous book that turns the darkness of our world into light through lyrical prose that will transport you, unflinchingly honest storytelling that demands a better world, and perhaps most importantly, cute dogs." --Abdi Nazemian, Stonewall and Lambda Award Winning author of Like a Love Story and Only This Beautiful Moment

"A tender story about navigating a complex world of silent struggles to find personal and communal healing." --Randy Ribay, National Book Award finalist of Everything We Never Had

About the Author

Erika Turner is a writer, a poet, and the daughter of storytellers. Sometimes, she writes songs she may one day share. Once, in a Brooklyn community center, she read James Baldwin's quote "You can't tell the children there's no hope," and she carries those words from the city to the desert and beyond. And Other Mistakes was her debut novel. She lives in California with her family and a dog who is suspicious of stationary street objects.