Scars Like Wings

One year after the fire, my doctor removes my mask and tells me to get a life.
 
He doesn t use those exact words, of course, because he s paid to flash around lots of medical-degree terms like reintegration and isolation, but basically, the Committee on Ava s Life had a big meeting and decided I have wallowed long enough.
 
My postburn pity party is over.
 
Dr. Sharp examines my skin grafts to make sure I haven t inadvertently grown batwings in my armpits since our last monthly pat-down. Scars can be screwy little suckers, and since my body is 60 percent screwed up, it takes Dr. Sharp a full twenty minutes to check me over. The tissue paper covering the vinyl exam table crinkles beneath me as my aunt Cora watches attentively from the sidelines, scribbling notes in her gargantuan Ava s Recovery binder while her eyes follow Dr. Sharp.
 
He removes the bandana from my head and then my clear plastic mask, his fingers grazing my scars.
 
Everything s healing beautifully, he says, without even a  hint of irony. The coldness of his fingers registers above my eyes but fades as he moves to the thicker grafts around my mouth.
 
Well, I say, you can put lipstick on a pig, but it s still a p--
 
Ava! gasps Cora, who is not only my aunt but also the self-appointed CEO of the aforementioned committee on my life.
 
Dr. Sharp shakes his head and laughs, revealing two deep dimples on either side of his smile, which only makes him even more like one of those McHottie doctors on TV who bang each other in the on-call room between saving lives. I blame his smoldering eyes and strong jawline for the butterfly swarm in my stomach every time he touches my grafts. It also doesn t help that I m keenly aware he has seen me naked approximately nineteen times. Sure, it s on an operating-room table, but naked is naked, even covered with gauze and nineteen surgeries worth of scars.
 
But we never address that

Erin Stewart grew up in the woods of Virginia catching fireflies. She now makes her home in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains with her husband and their three children. Erin loves using her background in journalism to research and write fiction based on real life. A heart failure survivor and adoptive mother, she believes life throws plot twists and people in our path for a reason--always. Scars Like Wings is her debut novel.

Visit Erin online at erinstewartbooks.com and follow @Erin_N_Stewart on Twitter and Instagram.

"A heartfelt and unflinching look at the reality of being a burn survivor and at the scars we all carry. This book is for everyone, burned or not, who has ever searched for a light in the darkness." --Stephanie Nielson, New York Times bestselling author of Heaven Is Here and a burn survivor

"A tender, frank coming-of-age story about the pain and power of survival." Kirkus Reviews

A sensitively handled story filled with relatable, three-dimensional characters . The first-person narrative movingly expresses Ava s lingering sorrow and changing outlook as she navigates her way toward a new form of normalcy. Publishers Weekly

Thought-provoking . . . will push readers to think deeply about empathy, hope, and resilience in the face of heartbreak."  School Library Journal

"What Wonder (2012) did for middle-school kids, Stewart s debut does for high schoolers . Readers will find this emotional, heart-wrenching novel endearing and profound. Booklist

The novel offers an unflinching portrait of pain and loss, and argues that the journey out of darkness cannot be a solitary one. VOYA

A Junior Library Guild Selection