Unbecoming

By Jenny Downham

Subjects: Mothers and daughters, fiction, Family secrets, Patients, England, fiction, Grandmothers, Family life, fiction, Teenage fiction, Families, Teenage girls, Alzheimer's disease, Brothers and sisters, fiction, Family, LGBTQ young adult, Social Themes, Secrets, Fiction, JUVENILE FICTION, Children's fiction, Grandparents, fiction, Stonewall Book Awards, Brothers and sisters, Juvenile fiction, Family, fiction, Girls & Women, Mothers and daughters, Family life, Alzheimer's disease, fiction

Description: Katie's life is falling apart: her best friend thinks she's a freak, her mother, Caroline, controls every aspect of her life, and her estranged grandmother, Mary, appears as if out of nowhere. Mary has dementia and needs lots of care, and when Katie starts putting together Mary's life story, secrets and lies are uncovered: Mary's illegitimate baby, her zest for life and freedom and men; the way she lived her life to the full yet suffered huge sacrifices along the way. As the relationship between Mary and Caroline is explored, Katie begins to understand her own mother's behavior, and from that insight, the terrors about her sexuality, her future, and her younger brother are all put into perspective.