When We Were Good
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Complete Sun, Jul 4, 20214h 0m
After a painful loss, the last thing Katherine expects to do is fall in love.
*****
Katherine's life is a wreck. Not only has her best friend ditched her for yet another new boyfriend, her beloved grandmother died on New Year's Eve leaving a void of goodness in her life that Katherine's not sure how to fill. While overwhelmed with sadness and self-doubt, Katherine unexpectedly finds new love, both for Toronto's underground music scene and for her would-be saviour: a straight edge, loud mouth misfit named Marie. As Katherine seeks comfort in jagged guitars, mind-reading poets and honest conversations, she struggles to figure out not only what she and Marie might mean to each other, but also what it truly means to be good.
• Finalist for the inaugural Speaker's Young Authors Award
• Selected for the American Library Association's Rainbow List
"Set on Toronto streets in the year 2000, Sutherland's first novel keeps the story fresh. A bit like Weetzie Bat with the wings ripped off." - The Globe and Mail
"When We Were Good doesn't eschew teenage romance and bildungsroman narratives, but instead employs them through the lens of queerness and mental health, transforming them into something new and gleaming and important. " - Weird Canada
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