SuitabookMaking an identity
Sephora wants the story of her life to be her own rather than simply part of her mother's fairy tale.
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Book details
Elana K. Arnold - Author
This is a dark coming-of-age story about a teenager trying to claim her own identity while confronting a disturbing secret within a close mother–daughter relationship. Fairy-tale imagery frames questions about beauty, storytelling, concealment and what it means to make a life one's own.
Sephora Golding lives in the shadow of her unbelievably beautiful mother. Even though they scrape by in the seedier part of Venice Beach, she's always felt lucky. As a child, she imagined she was a minor but beloved character in her mother's fairy tale. But now, at sixteen, the fairy tale is less Disney and more Grimm. And she wants the story to be her own. Then she meets Felix, and the fairy tale takes a turn she never imagined. Sometimes, a story is just a way to hide the unspeakable in plain sight. Sephora, a 17-year-old surfer and artist, discovers a secret so horrible that she cannot share it, especially with her beautiful mother, although they have always been unusually close. The plot contains profanity, sexual situations, and mature themes.
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Sign in for personalised guidanceThis is a dark coming-of-age story about a teenager trying to claim her own identity while confronting a disturbing secret within a close mother–daughter relationship. Fairy-tale imagery frames questions about beauty, storytelling, concealment and what it means to make a life one's own.
Sephora wants the story of her life to be her own rather than simply part of her mother's fairy tale.
Sephora lives in the shadow of her exceptionally beautiful mother, while a hidden secret complicates the family's fairy-tale image.
Sephora and her mother have always been unusually close, yet Sephora believes she cannot tell her mother what she has discovered.
The book includes profanity, sexual situations and mature themes, alongside a secret described as horrible and unspeakable. A parent may wish to check whether this level of intensity fits the individual reader before beginning.
This is a grounded book brief while Suitabook strengthens the analysis: the current material supports only a cautious reading; another book-specific source is still needed.
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