A Roller Coaster Down

All Bernadette “Bernie” O’Brien, an underachieving, overweight 14-year-old, who happens to be blind, wants is an average share of happiness. Instead, her life is on a runaway roller coaster that can only plummet down. As she begins her freshman year at Desert Vista High School, Bernie secretly yearns to steal Jason, her sister’s football-star boyfriend. Instead, child-like Nick attaches himself to Bernie like acne. Then, during the first week of school, Bernie’s best friend, Leese, dumps her for more popular girls. Bernie’s health spirals downward, but she refuses to accept a diagnosis of kidney disease. When Leese falsely accuses a young teacher of abusing her, Bernie falters between the choice of regaining friendship or saving the teacher’s career. Failed by those she idealizes, despising her own weaknesses, Bernie plunges into the desert of her own hopelessness. A Roller Coaster Down is a luminous, gently humorous story of one girl's struggle for redemption and of the universal search for love and self-respect.