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{{Here we are)

Here we are is a 2023 novel written by Brooklyn Granstra. the novel follows Vanessa, a freshmen in high school and her cousin, MJ, dealing with conflicts such as substance abuse, sexual trauma, and vanessa’s mother getting diagnosed with leukemia.

Plot

Vanessa Laney, a 15 year old, dealing with growing up and transferring to high school, lives with her older cousin, Marcy Johnson (MJ) and her mother, Sarah Laney. vanessa’s father is in the U.S. military, and is deployed. MJ’s mother and father were teen parents, and gave her up to Sarah because they couldn’t afford to take care of her.

Vanessa starts her first day of freshmen year in the same school as MJ, who’s a sophomore this year. although, they have none of their core classes, such as math and english, together, MJ and vanessa have gym class together, which is scary for MJ since, when vanessa got bullied, she advocated for her, only to get bullied even harsher, instilling fear of anyone knowing her relation to vanessa. Vanessa tries talking to MJ but she ignores her, pretending they’re strangers.

after school, MJ apologizes and tells vanessa that all the bullying had gotten to her, and she didn’t mean for her behavior to be so harsh. They make up, and spend the afternoon together, whilst Sarah is at work.

while the girls are together, 3 men break into the house, the girls hide, trying to quietly alert the authorities via the phone. the men hear them on the phone and attack them, further breaking MJ’s arm and one of the men, raping Vanessa.

the police eventually arrive, finding vanessa unconsciousness and covered in bruises and scars, and MJ lying on the floor crying in pain.

sarah returns in shock, to find the girls in such a state and the authorities in her house. she ends up pressing charges on the men, and they end up in jail. the girls are traumatized from the incident, and sarah even calls herself an awful mother and caretaker to the girls, blaming herself for the home invasion. to cope with the trauma, vanessa turns to drugs for relief, MJ finds out, and yells at vanessa, saying she can’t throw her life away because of what happened. vanessa ignores MJ’s warnings and starts using even harder drugs. sarah catches vanessa snorting cocaine in her room, and sends her to a rehabilitation program 3 hours away. MJ is upset, thinking she should’ve stopped her cousin before the drug abuse worsened. sarah comforts her, telling her things will work out eventually.

sarah is then diagnosed with leukemia, sending everyone into panic. while vanessa is still in rehab and jason, sarah’s husband and vanessa’s father, is still away. the doctors try to treat her cancer, but she ends up dying. MJ, vanessa, jason, and their family all are attending sarah’s funeral, MJ crying, jason praying for peace, and vanessa, to distraught for words.

the book ends with vanessa’s father, jason,returning from deployment and him dropping her off a therapy appointment, saying, quote,”things will work out eventually.” and in a bonus scene, it shows vanessa and MJ getting ice cream to celebrate vanessa's sobriety, then leaving flowers and vanilla cake, at sarah’s grave.