Far From the Tree by Robin Benway

Shade

And besides, it wasn't like the world was waiting with bated breath to read yet another essay about the importance of characterization in Spoon River Anthology. p22

Description

...that Joaquin's family tree seemed to have way too many scraggly branches and not enough roots, not the kind of roots you would need when the storm was strong. p53

He wished they would go away, because nothing was worse than someone wanting you to talk when the words you needed to say hadn't even been invented yet. p84

It felt a bit like she was heading toward a firing squad, except worse, because she knew she that instead of dying, she was going to have to stay alive through the whole day. And then the next one after that. p97

She said "You're the worst" in the way girls say things when they want boys to think that they're teasing, like, "You're the worse, but I still like you enough to hook up with you, even though you're the emotional equivalent of dirt." p101

There wasn't anything about what to do with pregnancy stretch marks when you were sixteen, nothing about trying to make your body feel like yours again when someone else had taken up residence in it for nine months and you still hadn't finished high school. p295

Discussion

It turned out she wasn't the only gay kid at school, and she was never harassed or teased-- but she found she didn't know how to be affectionate with friends. Would they think she was hitting on them if she just hugged them hello? Would she make it weird just being herself? p66

"And don't say you suck at math and science. That's such a cliche when girls say that. Even if it's true, just lie." p211

"Does it count as knowing you if they don't know one of the most important things that's happened to you?" p232

He wasn't naive about the ways of the world. He knew that white baby girls were first-ranked on most people's list of Children We Would Like to Have One Day. He knew they were more expensive, too, that people paid almost $10,000 more in legal fees for babies who were white, so he knew that these girls' adoptive parents had some money. p74

"It's just... people got paid to keep me, and that still wasn't enough." p127

One of the reasons Grace had given up Peach was because she hadn't wanted her life to stop ("You're so young," her parents had implored over and over again). but nobody had told Grace that her life might stop anyway, that she'd be trapped in the amber of her pregnancy, or Peach, while the rest of the world continued to change around her. p182

"Because if I can't move forward and like someone and make friends and, God forbid, fall in love again, then I don't understand why I gave up the baby in the first place! Unless it was only to make everything okay for you!" p236

child's response to a parent in rehab- p309

LOL

Maya had always wanted a dog, but her mom said that they shed and drooled and barfed on the rug. "So did Lauren, but you kept her," Maya had pointed out more than once, but the joke had worn thin by now and she had stopped asking for a dog. p155

Beautiful

"You don't have to tell anyone. But it'd be a shame if you had all these people willing to support you, and you never let them." p233

"I promise I'm not leaving you behind. We're just on different paths right now. They'll meet at the end, okay? I promise,..." p313

There's a great quote about family on p335, but it's kind of spoiler-y, so I'm not going to put it here.

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