Does anyone ever see us for who we really are? Jo Knowles's revelatory novel of interlocking stories peers behind the scrim as it follows nine teens and one teacher through a seemingly ordinary day.

Thanks to a bully in gym class, unpopular Nate suffers a broken finger--the middle one, splinted to flip off the world. It won't be the last time a middle finger is raised on this day. Dreamer Claire envisions herself sitting in an artsy cafe, filling a journal, but fate has other plans. One cheerleader dates a closeted basketball star; another questions just how, as a -big...