An incredibly important and moving book

BEAUTY FOR ASHES
by Erin Stewart
Delacorte, Fall 2019

BEAUTY FOR ASHES tells the story of 16-year-old Ava Gardener, who is heading back to school one year after a house fire left her severely disfigured. Ava’s used to the names: Freddy Krueger. Melted Face. Zombie. But there’s one name she hates most of all: Survivor. What do you call someone who didn’t mean to survive? Who sometimes wishes she hadn’t? Now, with only her scar armor to protect her, she tries to tune out the whispers about the Burned Girl. More than anything, Ava avoids the girl in the mirror. When she meets a fellow survivor named Piper at therapy, however, Ava begins to feel like she’s not facing the nightmare alone. With her middle-finger-to-the-universe attitude and her hot pink compression garments, Piper helps Ava reclaim the pieces of Ava Before the Fire, a normal girl who kissed boys beneath bleachers and sang on stage. But Piper is fighting her own battle for survival, and when Ava almost loses her best friend, she must decide if the new normal she’s chasing has more to do with the girl in the glass—or the people by her side.

Erin Stewart is a freelance writer/editor, as well as a weekly columnist in Salt Lake City and a member of SCBWI. BEAUTY FOR ASHES is her debut novel.