Scars Like Wings by Erin Stewart

Author : Erin Stewart
Title : Scars Like Wings
Published : 2019
Publisher : Simon & Schuster Children's UK
Pages : 384
Genre : Young Adult

     16-year-old Ava Lee is heading back to school one year after a house fire left her severely disfigured. She's used to the names, the stares, the discomfort, but there's one name she hates most of all: Survivor. What do you call someone who didn't mean to survive? Who sometimes wishes she hadn't? When she meets a fellow survivor named Piper at therapy, Ava begins to feel like she's not facing the nightmare alone. Piper helps Ava reclaim the pieces of Ava Before the Fire, a normal girl who kissed boys and sang on stage. But Piper is fighting her own battle, and when Ava almost loses her best friend, she must decide if the new normal she's chasing has more to do with the girl in the mirror - or the people by her side. 

     There are a great many young adult books out there. For a lot in this subset, they tend to deal with kids who are dying. You know the ones, we have all read them some are far better than others. But what comes after? Most of these books end with our heroes ether dying or finding some way to beat what ales them. So what if for once you started at this point? What story could pull me in and make me care for these heroes? That how I came to be holding a copy of Scars Like Wings. Now I realize that in the traditional sense this is not like those others. This isn't about your body attacking itself. When it comes to burns victims this is something that happens to them from external forces. But I think there is still a lot to be found in common with these types of stories. 

     Ava is one of those likable characters, she has been through so much by the time I first met her. In some way, it is diff cult to not have sympathies for a sixteen-year-old burn survivor. You would have to really try to have the reader, not like them. But there is nothing to worry about here as Stewart has done a great job in creating a fully-fleshed out and believable character. You get to experience both the pain that comes from her scars but also the pain she puts her self through. There is a great deal to learn from our young hero, She has to adjust to a whole new her all the while navigating high school. On the other side, we have piper a girl who would seem to have already walked Ava's path. A possible guiding light to show Ava that there is still a life out there to be lived. 

     This is a book about the struggles and scars we all carry around in and on us. These two girls are fighting battles for every moment of there lives. It is far o easy to judge a book by its cover and I guess this is what people do with burn victims. We see the outwards image, the thing that makes us coil back. But I think for many this is not so much about what we see but how our minds apply it to us. In those brief moments, we feel both relieved that it is not us, but also the guilt for think that way. Piper and Ava show us that whatever we are thinking it is no worse than what they have thought themselves. That pity is also something best left at the door, it is not going to help anyone. What they need is for people to simply accept them as they are now and move on. And that is what Stewart sets out to do with Scars Like Wing. She showed me the pain and heartbreak that not only lives in every teenager's life but also when you have to go beyond that. I think they handle it better than most adults would have done. 

     This is a book that will certainly make you think about how we view the world. I suppose we take a lot about the way we look for granted. The sad thing is that it could all be taken away in a heartbeat. How would any of us real adjust to this? If I managed half what these two girls do, I would be content I think.