JENA:  I know it was you. I recognized the handwriting on your letter.

SKYE:  What was me?

JENA:  I found your note at Paradise. The one by the hot tub.

JENA:  Skye? Are you still there?

JENA:  Skye? Are you getting these? Please say something.

This is not the Disney movie. This is Tangled, the novel about intersecting lives.

Told from four points of view at four different points in time, enter into the minds of the sunny girl, the jock, the beautiful one, and the geek. All seem to be different as can be, yet their lives meet in Paradise and can never be the same.

The saying that "everyone carries baggage around" is profoundly evident in this novel by Carolyn Mackler. Each character thinks the others have a much better life than their own. After interacting with each other, though, each person helps another person in a life-changing way. Self-consciousness, survivor's guilt, deep depression, and body-image issues are dealt with in realistic ways.

Carolyn Mackler is the author of the often censored book, The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things. Here she speaks to teens about issues that affect them, but in a non-judgmental way. The tone of this book varies from light to dark, depending upon which character is speaking. In the author's note, Mackler says that books often let her see that "the world was bigger than my high school," which she hopes to convey to her audience.

I look forward to reading her collaboration with Jay Asher, author of Thirteen Reasons Why. Look for their upcoming collaboration about Josh and Emma!