A Step Toward Falling

Emily has always tried to be good, which makes the night she freezes all the more shocking. At a school dance she watches Belinda, a classmate with developmental disabilities, come under attack and does nothing. Belinda gets herself out of the situation without help. When the school learns what happened, Emily and Lucas, a football player who was also there, are sentenced to community service at a center for people with disabilities. Working there, the two begin to believe they might finally be doing some good and that they could act differently if they had the chance to relive that night. Yet the question remains whether anything they do can truly help the person they hurt most.

The story alternates between Emily and Belinda, so readers see the aftermath from both sides. Emily is a quiet overthinker haunted by her failure to act. Lucas is a popular athlete whose reputation sits uneasily beside his silence. Belinda, who loves Pride and Prejudice, gives the novel a sharp and tender view of life with a developmental disability and of the fallout from an attack she survived alone.

Cammie McGovern wrote this as a follow-up to Say What You Will, her young adult debut. Her novel deals with guilt, accountability, and the difficult work of forgiveness, both from others and from oneself. Fans of Jennifer Niven, Robyn Schneider, and Jandy Nelson may find the same emotional honesty here.