The Thing About Jellyfish, Ali Benjamin
Realistic fiction
Suzy knows that things don’t just happen. What kind of world would that be? But that’s the only answer she gets when she asks why her best friend Franny drowned on summer vacation, before Suzy could apologize for the worst thing she’s ever done.
Things just happen, her mom says, but Suzy is determined to find a better answer. It doesn’t take her long: jellyfish. Franny was a good swimmer, she didn’t have a heart condition, there are no sharks on that beach – but there are jellyfish, and Suzy learns about an especially deadly species that could’ve been the culprit. Finally, it seems like there’s a reason why Franny died.
Suzy can’t focus on anything else. She does her science presentation on jellyfish. She looks up famous jellyfish researchers and writes down all the questions she wants to ask them. She doesn’t speak to anyone, focusing only on her desperate search for answers. But the answers Suzy really needs are within herself – and that’s the hardest place to look.