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  • Sometimes the Girl by Jennifer Mason-Black book cover
  • Sometimes the Girl by Jennifer Mason-Black book cover
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Sometimes the Girl

by Jennifer Mason-Black

An attic job opens up questions about art and the lives behind it

$19.77 USD
$32.96 USD $19.77 USD
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Awards & Recognition

  • Award recognition

    Stonewall Honor Book for Young Adult Literature

    Recognized as a Stonewall Honor Book for Young Adult Literature.

  • Editorial selection

    YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults Selection

    Selected for YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults.

AlbakiReads Editorial

An attic job opens up questions about art and the lives behind it

Eighteen-year-old Holiday is contending with her brother’s recent suicide attempt, lingering feelings for her ex, and a stalled writing practice when she takes a temporary job organizing the attic of elderly novelist Elsie McAllister. The work gives Holiday access to the private world of an author whose reputation rests on one long-ago novel. As she sorts the attic’s contents, what she learns about Elsie becomes part of Holiday’s own reckoning with art, personal history, and the choices ahead. The novel brings together a young writer’s uncertainties and an older author’s guarded past, with creative work and the entanglement of art and life running through both.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Teen and young adult fiction readers interested in literary themes
  • Readers drawn to stories about writing, art, and creative identity
  • Readers open to fiction addressing family crisis and complicated relationships

Themes

Writing and creative identityArt and lived experienceFamily crisisRomantic relationshipsPrivacy and personal history

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

A Stonewall Honor Book for Young Adult Literature

A YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults Selection

A Kirkus Best Teen/YA Book of 2025

Eighteen-year-old Holiday needs to sort her life out.

She's still shaken from her brother's recent suicide attempt; still pining over her ex, Maya; and still struggling to write again after a long dry spell. To earn enough money for a rebalancing trip with Maya, Holi gets a short-term job: organizing the attic of acclaimed author Elsie McAllister. It's an unglamorous gig with a difficult boss. Elsie--whose fame rests on a single novel published decades ago--is in her nineties, in failing health, and fiercely protective of her privacy. But as Holi sorts through the attic's surprising contents, she realizes there's much more to Elsie than the novel that made her a legend.

Unearthing Elsie's secrets will change how Holi sees art, life, and the way they intertwine, as she grapples with choices that will redefine her own path.


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