Never Said

For as long as she can remember, Sarah's family life has revolved around her twin sister, Annie—the pretty one, the social one, the girl who can do anything. The person everyone seems to wish Sarah—with her crippling shyness—could simply become. When Annie suddenly chops off her hair, quits beauty pageants, and gains weight, the focus changes—Annie is still the star of the family, but for all the wrong reasons. Sarah knows something has happened, but she too is caught in her own spiral after her boyfriend breaks up with her and starts hanging out with one of Annie's old friends. Annie is intent on keeping her painful secret safe. But when she and Sarah start spending time together again for the first time in years, walls start to break on both sides ... and words that had been left unsaid could change everything. Annie and Sarah are fifteen-year-old fraternal twins -- who only spend time together because they're under the same roof. Annie's life has long been focused around her appearance and the beauty pageants that celebrate it, whereas Sarah's interests are sports and her runner boyfriend, Jeremy. Then Annie begins to gain more and more weight, and all she seems to hear from her mother is, "You used to be so pretty," followed by the latest diet to try. Things begin to unravel for Sarah as well. Jeremy -- her boyfriend of more than a year -- decides to see if he and Sarah are "right" for each other, dumping her in order to get his head on straight. Sarah is devastated. Her family is crumbling. The love of her life is dating other people. Her sister is getting heavier and more depressed. When Sarah learns, through gentle questioning, that a neighbor and very good family friend has been sexually abusing her sister, she knows she must act, and help the sister who seemingly always had it all In this contemporary YA novel by bestselling author Carol Lynch Williams (The Chosen One), fifteen-year-old fraternal twins Annie and Sarah are sisters, but that is where their interaction ends. Then Annie begins to withdraw from the family, forcing Sarah to investigate why--and the abuse she uncovers changes their relationship forever.