Until the Ribbon Breaks by E.K. Blair

*Note: Be advised that “Until the Ribbon Breaks” contains sensitive topics including: substance abuse, suicide, and mental illness. Some scenes may be triggering.

This is an unflinching and heartbreaking portrait of adolescents with mental illness and the effects it has on the people surrounding them.

Being locked up in a juvenile mental health facility was the last place Harlow thought she’d be spending the summer before her senior year of high school. Battling with massive depressive disorder and a past suicide attempt, one wouldn’t think things could get much worse, that is, until Hopewell’s newest patient arrives—Sebastian. Popular, arrogant, and the one person Harlow despises the most at school; it couldn’t possibly get any worse, could it?
With nowhere to hide, Harlow is forced to come face to face with her deepest insecurities—insecurities that will pave the way for her to forge an unforeseen friendship with Sebastian. Together, they learn to lean on each other in order to find the strength to drop their walls and see each other’s truths.
But it’s when they leave Hopewell and return home that life becomes even more complicated and lines begin to blur. Stripped of all their safeguards that Hopewell provided and thrusted back into their lives, the two of them must rely on each other as they navigate through their senior year.