Gabi: A Girl in Pieces by Isabel Quintero

A novel told in diary entries from the point of view of Gabi Hernandez, a high school senior from a small town in southern California. One of her best friends is pregnant; the other has just been kicked out of the house because he's gay. Gabi's dad is addicted to meth. Gabi is trying to figure out how to deal in a positive way with her body image, her relationship with her mother, being seen as "too white" or "too American," and with relationships with boys -- when her mother's advice on the subject is "eyes open, legs closed."

But it's not really an issue book, or a problem book. It's saved from that by how real and honest and authentic -- and often funny! -- the voice is, a lot like The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.

It's slice-of-lifey rather than plotty, but still really compelling to read -- I hardly got up after I started reading it. Gabi takes a poetry elective, participates in an open mic night, makes her own zine, and none of it is super-dramatic but all of it feels like you just want to cheer for this girl.

It's the kind of book that's entirely without gimmick or artifice, just an entirely believable girl coming of age. It's so good.