Sadie Starr is starting over. Her parents are moving her from Sydney to Melbourne, which means a fresh new identity. She has a new wardrobe, a new diet and a clean slate. Once in Melbourne, she’s immediately taken under the wing of the coolest girl in school and everything seems perfect. But then things begin to go wrong and Sadie is sent into a downward spiral.

Sadie just wants to fit in at school and make her parents proud, but she’s constantly being pulled in different directions. Her friends are demanding, her mother wants her to be popular and skinny, and her dad seems to only care about how well she’s doing academically. Plus she’s missing her best friend back home.

Although a lot of issues are tackled in this book, debut author Miranda Luby does an excellent job of exploring each of them with accuracy and care, never causing the reader to feel overwhelmed. We witness Sadie’s experience with her eating disorder up close: when things are going well, she feels in control. She exercises, calorie counts and keeps her grades up. But as soon as things start to go wrong, the binge eating begins and her grades suffer.

Sadie is an incredibly relatable character. At times, she just follows along with what her new friends tell her and doesn’t stop to question things for herself. She often can’t see what is right in front of her and I just wanted to reach into the book and shake her. At other times, I wanted to give her a hug and tell her she’s going to be okay.

Powerful and engaging, Sadie Starr’s Guide to Starting Over explores performative feminism, #MeToo, eating disorders, bullying, family dynamics and grief.

For ages 14+.

Lucie Dess is the marketing assistant at Readings