Way the Light Bends by Cordelia Jensen
Virtual twins Linc and Holly were once extremely close. But while artistic, creative Linc is her parents’ biological daughter, it’s smart, popular Holly, adopted from Ghana as a baby, who checks all the boxes of their family’s high standards for success. Linc is desperate to pursue photography and longs to be accepted for who she is, despite her surgeon mother’s constant disapproval and her growing distance from Holly. So when Linc comes up with a plan using photography to boost her performance in school, she is excited and determined to prove that her differences are assets and that she has what it takes to make her mother proud. But when a long-buried family secret comes to light, Linc must reconsider where it is she truly belongs. A powerful novel in verse about fitting in, standing out, and defining your own self-worth, The Way the Light Bends challenges the ways in which we think about success, and reminds us of all it means to be a family.