A novel by Cara Delevingne and Rowan Coleman.
Sixteen-year-old students Red, Leo, Rose and Naomi are band geeks and misfits. They're going through the difficulty of teenage time together, with the help of their band Mirror Mirror and their friendship.
Then, however, Naomi disappears and is found weeks later half dead in a river. She falls into a coma and leaves her friends with a huge amount of questions, especially as the police starts to believe it was a suicide attempt, which Red, Leo and Rose completely disagree with.
Now, the three friends have to find out what happened to Naomi on their own, and keep holding together, because they have their own problems and demons.
Tropes in this novel
- Abusive Parents: Red's mother, who does not accept Red's choices and clothes and hairstyle and wants Red to present more "normal".
- Adults Are Useless: Zigzagged. The police and Naomi's parents are looking into what happened to Naomi, but at least the police also assumes that Naomi might have run away which turns out to be true, though she later wanted to come back and was stopped and it is Red, Ash and Leo who eventually find out what is going on.
- The Alcoholic: Red's mother. It weighs heavily on their relationship, as Red is forced to act as the adult and the parent in the family.
- Big Brother Instinct: Red and her little sister. Ash desperately wants to find out what happened to her sister Naomi.
- Butch Lesbian: Red.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Literally everyone.
- Evil Teacher: Mr. Smith. He's part of a pedophile ring, almost killed Naomi and is now trying to convince Rose to run away with him. Particularly hard for Red, given that Mr. Smith was the only teacher she really liked and trusted.
- Gayngst: Red is a lesbian, who is disrespected by her mother and rejected by Rose, who even accuses her of trying to rape her when Red simply read a situation wrong and kissed her.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Red.
- Playful Hacker: Ash.
- Psycho Lesbian: What Rose accuses Red of being after Red kisses her. It's really harsh on Red, who is ostracized for it at school. However, Rose takes back the accusation the next day.
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Red, Naomi, Rose and Leo. They're very different people, but they share a passion for music and their band
- The Reveal: Multiple ones. Rose is dating the nice music teacher Mr. Smith. Red is not, as probably every reader assumed, a boy, she is in fact a girl. Mr. Smith is also the one responsible for Naomi's state.
- When You Coming Home, Dad?: Sort of. Red would like to see more of her father, but the real issue is that he is pretty much completely ignoring his wife's alcoholism, which leaves Red as the only person to deal with it. Also, Rose kind of desperately wants her father to notice and acknowledge her as a person.
