One Sided

One Sided is a coming-of-age novel that follows a young girl named Rhea, who is in her senior year of high school. As the book begins, we learn that Rhea has a deep crush on one of her classmates and has developed an unhealthy obsession with him. After her only friend moves out of town, she is left without anyone to turn to. So when she watches the boy she's been pining over ask another girl out in front of the entire school, she panics. With no one there to console her, she retreats to the grandstands, expressing herself in the only way she can at the time; with tears.

There, she meets someone who seems almost God-sent. Though initially hostile and reluctant to open up, Rhea eventually talks to him and discovers that he is a member of her class. He offers to help her get the attention of the boy she likes, and Rhea sees him as nothing more than a means to an end.

As time goes on, Rhea begins to get the things she has spent so long dreaming about. Yet instead of feeling satisfied, she finds herself questioning what she truly wants. As she takes a step back and begins to see the bigger picture, she realizes that the people around her are not who she thought they were. Her own feelings become increasingly difficult to understand, and she begins to wonder who the boy who has been beside her all along really is-and what he wants from her.

One Sided isn't just a romantic novel. It explores themes of unhealthy attachment, loneliness, self-worth, emotional dependency, identity, mental health, grief, friendship, manipulation, and the complicated process of growing up and learning to understand oneself.

The story also seeks to bring attention to the things that are often overlooked. Its characters are not simply background figures existing to serve the protagonist's story; they are people with their own experiences, struggles, motivations, and histories.