"Shine" by Lauren Myracle

Have you ever felt alone or lost? The book "Shine" by Lauren Myracle tells the story of a girl named Cat who hides in fear a lot but decides, when her best friend gets assaulted for being gay, that she had to find who hurt him. She begins to explore outside again, which lets her become less afraid and she begins to trust her friends again. Cat has to overcome her struggles, that many teens can relate to, and come out of her shell because she needs help and can't live alone.

Cat must overcome struggles and come out her shell to find her best friends assaulter. For one thing, she begins to realize she can trust her brother again. Throughout the story, there are flashbacks of her brother and her having fun and helping each other. One of them was when she wanted to jump off a rock that was super high up, but her brother stopped her, which saved her life. She realizes slowly that he still wants to help her, and they start to find the assaulter together.

Another thing that Cat does is talk to other people more. It's not that she was shy before, but she lived in fear that she was not really there. In other words, she hadn't gone out unless there was a reason, and she was very cautious when she did. When she decides to find the assaulter, it was almost her personal way to overcome that. She realizes how much she misses the outside world. She even goes to the boys house that ruined her life. She stands tall and brings a pistol. She feels stronger. This shows her slowly turning her life back around, since it was really hard for her to do.

In conclusion, Cat overcomes her struggles and comes out of her shell. Some of the themes of the story are grief, homophobia, assault, fear and trust. Readers can connect to this story because they know what its like for her, or this book can make it easier to imagine it not being the end of the world for those who have gone through her struggles and those who haven't.