A remarkably cohesive, genre-defying memoir that is at once a beautiful love letter and a haunting true-crime investigation.
— Kirkus Reviews
Apprentice House Press
Potent and meaningful, this is a mini-coming-of-age, written in verse, that draws you in until the last page.
— Bookworm for Kids
West 44 Books
A thoughtful must-read that explores grueling attempts to destroy girls’ spirits.
— Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)
West 44 Books
PRAISE FOR EVERYWHERE I LOOK
Storytrade Nonfiction Book of the Year
Pencraft Best Book Award in Nonfiction - Memoir
Readers’ Choice Gold Award for Best Adult Book
Independent Author Award in New NonFiction
Independent Author Award in True Crime
An Independent Book Review 2024 Must-Read
... This is a remarkably cohesive, genre-defying memoir that is at once a beautiful love letter and a haunting true-crime investigation. A poignant, gripping story of love, memory, and physical and psychological brutality.
— Kirkus Reviews
A stunning and deeply moving exploration of grief and healing, beautifully told by Gritz with raw honesty and vulnerability.
— Reader’s Choice Award, Finalist/ Five Star Review
A riveting look at the impact of dark family secrets...At its core, Everywhere I Look is a gut-wrenching, heartbreaking, and wildly fascinating story about families and the secrets that destroy them. It is sure to stick with you.
— Independent Book Review, Starred Review
Everywhere I Look, Ona Gritz’s memoir, is a heartbreaking portrait of Angie, a young woman who never had the chance to thrive, and her adored and adoring sister Ona, whose quest for answers about Angie’s murder means unlocking long-held family secrets. This beautifully crafted story is devastating and yet hopeful, a reminder that the truth really can set you free.
— Jane Bernstein – award-winning author whose books include The Face Tells the Secret and Bereft – A Sister’s Story
In this poignant memoir, written in the form of a letter to a lost sister, Ona Gritz grapples with the weight of family secrets and the profound impact they can have on our lives. In precise, poetic prose, Gritz explores the complexities of family dynamics and the ways in which her understanding of those dynamics shifts as she reckons with both the shock of her sister’s tragic death and what she learns about her family and herself in its aftermath. Everywhere I Look is a testament to the love between sisters, the difficulty of understanding ourselves within the sometimes confusing context of our families, and the power of confronting the past to create the possibility of peace, and even forgiveness.”
—Andrea J. Buchanan, NYT bestselling author of Five-Part Invention and The Beginning of Everything
Ona Gritz has smashed familial silence to pieces, and pulled the story of her beloved sister out of the wreckage and into the light. Everywhere I Look is a stunningly beautiful and fearless unraveling of one family's party line, and a testament to the deep love between sisters—still just as ardent, tender, and devoted decades beyond death.
—Lilly Dancyger, author of First Love and Negative Space
Everywhere I Look is a profound and beautifully written memoir whose layers unfold to reveal a devastating series of family secrets and a grisly true crime tragedy. Gritz is masterful at recreating on the page the sister she lost, while illuminating the psychological complexity of family relationships.
—Helen Fremont, author of The Escape Artist and After Long Silence
Ona Gritz was a college student when her troubled, beautiful, vivid sister—a mother pregnant with a second child—was murdered. But it would take years before Gritz would begin to understand the complexities that surrounded that death and defined the years of living that came before. With a detective’s determination and a poet’s heart, Gritz explores matters of belonging (and not belonging), being loved and being lost, wishing for and wanting more. Everywhere I Look is testament and testimony, a sister’s transformative journey toward bringing a heartbreaking past into the glimmering light.
—Beth Kephart, author of Wife | Daughter | Self: A Memoir in Essays
Everywhere I Look is part love story, part murder mystery, part coming-of-age memoir. Ona Gritz, in exquisite detail, examines her deep love for her older, adopted sister, a lost, wounded girl, who ultimately runs away—with tragic consequences. The longer Gritz digs into secrets surrounding her sister, the deeper her sadness—and the more urgent the prose. This memoir is courageously crafted like a love letter to her sister, a way to hold the absent sister close. This story of sister-love is a truly stunning and emotionally authentic exploration of sorrow and grief.
—Sue William Silverman, author of How to Survive Death and Other Inconveniences
This achingly gorgeous memoir - of yearning for a beloved, long-gone sister; coming to doubt fossilized family narratives; and pursuing with accelerating urgency a multitude of concealed truths - is enthralling, perspective-altering, and compassion-building. I will never stop thinking of its heart, and revelations, whenever a friend’s family story reduces a relative to caricature, or I ponder a lost loved one whose depths remain inscrutable. And I will never stop admiring Ona Gritz - so brave with her honesty, so gifted with her pen, so open to uncovering, beneath opaque answers, the complex and poignant poetry of those dearest to us. This is a book that will take hold of your emotions - and, if you’re willing, change you.
—Rachel Simon, NYT bestselling author of Riding the Bus with My Sister
PRAISE FOR THE SPACE YOU LEFT BEHIND
The Space you Left Behind is a compelling story about coming to terms with yourself and your body, as well as discovering disability pride and community. Like many teens, Cara feels alone and lonely, particularly when it comes to how her body works. But in her journey, she discovers she was never truly alone, and begins to find people like her. Cara goes from shame at the “secret” of her cerebral palsy to accepting her limitations, and expanding her definition of what it means to be made full by others. I especially loved this aspect for YA—that Cara examines her crush on Josh, and the unfair weight she put on him to “fix” her or make her feel whole. The mystery is interesting and surprising, and Cara’s character growth is complex and satisfying. The story is in verse, which I love—and it uses the form well. A compelling, fast page-turner of a book!
—Meg Eden Kuyatt, author of Good Different
Ona Gritz’s novel,The Space You Left Behind, is filled with captivating poetry that authentically encapsulates adolescent feelings of first love and self-image….The poetry in Gritz’s novel, both lyric and beautifully written, is simultaneously evocative of the intensity of teenage emotions and reflections. …The elements of mystery in this story drive the plot forward with a steady pacing that will resonate with readers. Throughout the novel, [they] will get to understand Cara’s relationship to herself and her growing understanding of what it means to be disabled…The Space You Left Behind by Ona Gritz … will connect well with young adult readers and engage them in a narrative of coming into oneself with poetry that is certainly to be remembered.
—Julia V. Betancourt, Wordgathering
The Space You Left Behind is a HiLo novel written in verse. The writing is poetic and filling. Gritz’ craft is exquisite in her execution of expression so much in a story with so few words. Brilliant!…With a lesson on friendship, family, love, and self-appreciation, this book is truly an iconic model for teen readers. Yet another highly recommended novel told in verse form.
— Teresa Crider, Review Writer
This is a beautifully written book. Each verse brings across the moment with emotion and clarity, while drawing in to an engaging tale. These are very short and, yet, make sure every word sits. Cara's feelings as well as each situation come across vividly and hold the right amount of tension and heart. It creates a seamless read, which draws in and allows the reader to get lost in Cara's world.
— Bookworm For Kids
This story was so beautiful…The characters were great and the mystery within the story was fascinating. It had so much heart, so much love and so much to unfold, this was an incredible verse book. — Goodreads Review
I didn't expect this novel-in-verse book would have emotional plot twist while the rest is also brilliantly told in short poems. Each line seems to pack a punch, no frill, no fluff, straight to the point. To write something that can hook readers so easily must require such skills in storytelling as well as composing poetry. The theme, the characters, the writing style, the verse format and title blend seamlessly to be one cohesive entertaining and inspiring story. I even looked back to page one after learning the plot twist, giving me a 'so that's why' moment for some things that has happened…I truly have nothing to say anymore except that I'm so glad I have read this and I hope you'll get a chance to read it too. It's more than just what it seems on the blurb, trust me.
—Goodreads Review
The Space You Left Behind is a really quick, heartfelt, and intriguing read!…Highly recommend to YA readers looking for novels in verse with themes of complicated friendship, family, and secrets!—Goodreads Review
ADVANCE PRAISE FOR TAKE A SAD SONG
A grieving teen finds sanctuary in a home for “wayward” girls.
Set in 1970, this accessible work confronts the consequences of the Wayward Minor Act through poems that even reluctant readers will find riveting. Grieving the death of her father, Jane Flynn is out partying with friends on her fifteenth birthday when police officers show up, explaining that her mother has reported her missing. Bewildered Jane arrives at Spofford, “a maximum-security prison for children” in the Bronx, where she’s bullied and beaten by another girl. Her mom appears before the judge, trying to bring Jane home, but her original worries about keeping her daughter safe are used to justify continued incarceration. Jane is transported to the New York State Training School for Girls, where she meets the Racket, a group of girls who form a secret chosen family within the devastating system. Beatles fan Jane adopts the moniker Jude and develops feelings for the equally broken Jo-Jo. She also meets Miss Coleman, the first adult since her father’s death who listens to her. As Jane grows more comfortable with Miss Coleman, she risks exposing the Racket: With the Stonewall uprising a recent memory, can this adult be trusted? Gritz presents an excoriating critique of the systemic squashing of girls’ voices and the silencing of their desires and curiosity. Jane is cued white, and there’s diversity in race and sexuality in the supporting cast.
A thoughtful must-read that explores grueling attempts to destroy girls’ spirits. (author’s note, playlist, sources)(Verse historical fiction. 13-18)
—Kirkus Reviews (Starred)
PRAISE FOR ONA GRITZ
“I read Everywhere I Look in a single sitting, and I hadn’t done that in years. It is both detective story and memoir and utterly entrancing.“
—Michèle Dawson Haber Hipppcampus Magazine | 2024
“As readers, we are right there with her on that learning journey. … As we have seen with these honest and moving essays, Gritz seeks, over and over, to claim the many facets of her identity.”
—Maria Scala Literary Mama | 2021
“With casual yet muscular language, Gritz’s poetry sets readers’ expectations of quiet moments and then upends them with a surprise turn of phrase or a devastating event.”
—Ginny Kaczmarek Literary Mama | 2014
“The notion that two contrasting things may be simultaneously possible appears in many of the essays in this sensitive and elegantly composed collection. … Ona Gritz on the page is a warm, wise, and concise confidant who deftly turns the craggy rocks of life into touchstones.”
—Ellen Blum Barish Brevity | 2021