The Art Of Losing

The Art Of Losing

YA/adult fiction
"Why didn't I drive Audrey home from the party we went to? Who
was driving the car that she was in? Why didn't I make sure that she
had a ride home? How could I have let this happen?
Guilt warred with anger until an anxious, bitter stew simmered
in my stomach. Audrey shouldn't get to be the victim when I was the
one who'd been betrayed?"
Harley, protagonist of Lizzy Mason's The Art Of Losing, is in a
hospital waiting room with her parents. Her little sister, Audrey,
who has been in a car accident, is in surgery. Nobody knows if she'll
ever be restored to herself...
...or even keep on breathing. Information about the accident
begins to filter in as they wait. The car Audrey was riding shotgun
in ran a red light and was hit on the passenger side. The very drunk
driver who had been taking Audrey home was Harley's boyfriend Mike...
...the same Mike who was the reason Harley had left the party
early. She had caught Mike and Audrey in a bedroom of the party house
with Mike's shirt on the floor. Feeling betrayed, she had stormed
out, not realizing that Audrey had no safe way home.
As Audrey slumbers in an artificial coma, induced to help her
brain heal and the family hovers around her, anxiously waiting to see
if she'll ever wake up, a childhood friend reenters Harley's life.
Raf quickly becomes someone she can rely on, someone she may even be
in love with. But he's just out of drug and alcohol rehab with no
guarantee of not backsliding. Will he end up hurting her like
alcoholic Mike did?
Mason must have received the same advice all aspiring writers
receive: write about what you know. At sixteen, using alcohol and
drugs to cope with depression and anxiety, she was put into rehab by
her parents. In a required 12 step program she became aware of her
privilege, meeting teens coping with addiction and trauma without the
benefit of a rehab like hers.
"The Art Of Losing is about making mistakes, accepting things
you can't change, and figuring out when to forgive and when to walk
away. But mostly, it's about loss, especially the loss of the life
you expected to have and the terror of realizing you have to reimagine
your future.
I hope this book will help make the possibilities a little
clearer for someone who needs it."
Mason's candid, captivating voice is a welcome addition to the
YA fiction world. I can't wait to see what she comes up with next.
On a very personal note, the book brought up memories for me. One was
from when I was eleven and Harriet (nine) was in the hospital with
spinal meningitis fighting for her life. My parents would leave me in
the waiting room with a stack of books while they stayed with
Harriet. The chair was orange and uncomfortable. My feet didn't
touch the floor. Nurses would bring me snacks and drinks from vending
machines and the cafeteria. Like Harley, I felt guilt. Mom and I had
rushed from a Girl Scout camping trip to the hospital. The night
before we left home Harriet hadn't let me play her new Mouse Trap
game. I had yelled, "I hate you. I hope you die." It took me decades
to realize it wasn't my fault through either my anger or mom's not
being at home to get Harriet to the hospital sooner.
The other memory was my dad's alcoholism. After our parents divorced
Harriet was considered too fragile to do the noncustodial parent
visitation thing. Only I wasn't. Taking the train to visit him was
scary because sometimes, under the influence, he put me in dangerous
situations. Where he had no inhibitions about driving under the
influence, I am very lucky I was never in Audrey's situation. Mom
told me never to ride with drunk or drugged friends, never knowing
that her ex husband was the prime offender.
When I was old enough and Mom and Harriet were in North Carolina I
ditched my father because he wasn't going to change.
I have never before said that last sentence aloud or put it in writing.
jules hathaway


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