R.I.P. Eliza Hart - Book Review

At a time when celebrity suicides have been in the press cycle, a book like Alyssa Sheinmel's R.I.P. Eliza Hart is a way to get teens reading this summer and a way to start a conversation with them about mental illness. This is the story of two girls with two very different life outcomes.

When Eliza Hart's body is pulled from the water, no one can believe that it could have been suicide. Why would Eliza have jumped? She had perfect hair. She was surrounded by friends. She was rich. What did she have to be depressed about?

But as Eliza's former childhood best friend Ellie knows, sometimes people keep secrets - like her own secret about her struggle with claustrophobia.

As Ellie tries to solve the mystery of what happened to Eliza, she begins to learn more about herself and why it's more important than ever that she ask for help.

This book came out last fall, and I actually picked up an ARC at last year's BookCon, but I'm just now getting around to reading it. I'm so glad that I kept it on my to-read shelf and finally read it instead of just passing it on to someone else simply because I missed posting a review timed to the book's release date. This is such an important book, now more than ever, and I really think that the author did a good job of portraying what happens in the book in an honest way without glorifying anything, except living.

R.I.P. Eliza Hart is published by Scholastic Press and is on bookstore shelves now. I received a free ARC from BookCon.