The storyline of this gripped me from the very beginning. It only took me a few days to read and ended up being one of my favourite reads if the year.

Some books just have the power to hit home and hit home hard. Scars like wings was like a sucker-punch for me. The story revolves around the physical and emotional recovery of Ava Lee. Ava is a young girl who has been disfigured. She survived a house fire but the girl that she physically knew has long gone and she is struggling to come to terms with the Ava Lee she is post accident. What makes it all the more difficult is that she is a high school students and kids, well they can be cruel.

I hoovered Scars Like Wings. Partly because the writing was so damn good but mostly because I empathised with Ava Lee - I have a facial scar from a reaction to medication and whilst it is nowhere as severe as I imagine Ava Lee's scarring to be but still the coming to terms with it was a long, hard road.

Stewart dealt with this topic so beautifully. She showed the complicated web of people having to deal with a tragedy like this be that school friends, family, classmates, people on the street and the doctors. I really feel that
Stewart gave a rounded perspective on this and one she should be very proud of.

Scars Like Wings will be shoved into the hands of all my students. It is a beautiful story that shows that beauty has many forms.

Scars Like Wings by Erin Stewart is available now.

For more information regarding Erin Stewart (@Erin_N_Stewart) please visit www.eringstewartbooks.com.

For more information regarding Simon & Schuster's UK Children's (@simonkids_UK) please visit www.simonand schuster.co.uk.

Scars Like Wings is the story of Ava Lee. A typical teenage girl until her life is changed forever by a horrific house fire, taking away her parents, cousin and the face she once called hers. In this book she explores what healing means on all levels. The physical differences she now has to adapt to, her peers who can't see past her scars and her family, forever changed by grief. To say this book is emotional would be under selling it by a mile, it highlights every part of the healing process in its gory glory. A wonderful read for teens and adults alike. Perfect for fans of John Green.

Scars Like Wings is an emotional story about the reality of what it is like to be a burn survivor, especially at such a young age, and the attempts that Ava, our main character, makes in order to try to live a ‘normal’ life again. The characters are well-developed and real, and the story will be easily loved by both younger and older readers. Although dealing with some complex topics, the book is heartfelt and a delightful read about high school, mental health and how a teenager learns to survive.

"Everyone has scars. Some are just easier to see."
After a tragic house fire in which she loses both her parents, Ava is now a burn survivor. After endless months in the hospital, she now has to go back into the real world and navigate life as a sixteen year old at a new high school.
Scars Like Wings is beautifully written. Erin Stewart captures emotions brilliantly. Not only has Ava lost her parents and cousin in the fire, but she has also lost herself - not only what she looked like, but who she was as a person.
There are so many messages in this book. It is about self-acceptance, learning to love yourself, empathy and having the courage to move forward with life.

Scars Like Wings is a tough book to read. Ava is full of grief, misplaced guilt, self deprication, and hopelessness. Hardly any aspect of her pre-fire life remains, and she finds herself simply passing through life, one doctors appointment and therapy session to the next. Then her aunt suggests she goes back to school. Honestly, I found Ava a likeable and relateable character. I think it is so common to find characters in situations like this who have given up, but I can honestly say I think I would feel the same in her shoes. I would be full of sarcams and self directed humour, sadness and not much else. She has been through a massive trauma, lost both her parents, feels like a burden to her aunt and uncle who have taken her is, putting her up in their dead daughters bedroom. And I think that is something that this book did really well, putting forth Ava's feelings.

I did have a bit of an issue with Kenzie, the designated mean girl in this book, and some of the other characters behaviours. I completely get that with injuries like Ava's, people would react to her in the ways she described. Not being able to hide their expressions, or treating her with pity. But the school kids in this book are 17ish. I can't imagine even the meanest mean girls at my school at that age saying some of these things directly to Ava's face. I'm not saying bullying and exclusion wouldn't happen, I just... I don't know, some of it seemed too unbelieavle and just there to make Kenzie out to be The Bad Guy.

I did like Ava and Piper's friendship though. I've read some reviews since finishing it that describes them as toxic friends, and to some extent I do agree. It was immediately very intense and they relied heavily on each other for deep, dark, emotional reasons. But they were two very hurt people. Not just physically, but Ava had abandoned all her friends and was out of practice of being around people. She wasn't used to someone genuinely wanting to spend time with her and liking her. Piper had been burnt by friendships and the accident that put her in a wheelchair. They were both doing the best with how they were and were trying to be there for each other, even if it wasn't in the healthiest of ways.

Such a powerful and important read! A really great message throughout the book on accepting your true self and not having to seek perfection in life.

What an amazing book. I could not put this book down. Such a life affirming read about a young teenage girl dealing with loss, loyalty compassion and fear. Definitely need to have the tissues ready.

Scars Like Wings is a heart-breaking book in which we meet Ava, a teenage girl struggling to deal with the physical and emotional scars of surviving the catastrophic fire that killed her family. Erin Stewart delicately and beautifully captures not just the pain of the countless surgeries, masks and compression suits, but also the guilt and grief that eats away at Ava, and her writing reduced me to tears on more than one occasion.

Alongside Ava, we have Piper, a larger than life character who pushes Ava to start living again, and who seems to have everything worked out, but who, in reality, is free-falling. The friendship that these two girls forge quickly becomes something that they both need more than anyone can possibly understand, because at the end of the day, the only person who can truly understand is the one who has lived the same experiences and battled the same demons.

This book is a story about becoming comfortable in your own skin, in the truest sense of the phrase. It is about discovering your new normal after your life has been unimaginably and permanently altered. It is devastating and raw and beautiful, all at the same time, and as I sit here I am struggling to fully explain how it made me feel. This truly is a book that everyone needs to read for themselves, because nothing I can say will ever do it justice.

This is one of those beautiful books which everyone should read. It takes us through the journey towards of acceptance from a burns victim and how they struggle to find their place in the world. Emotional and touching, it really makes you think and bears reading and rereading.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC without obligation.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in return for an honest review.

Great book. I loved reading it. Very interesting and covers alot of information

Unfortunately, I have not been able to read and review this book.

After losing and replacing my broken Kindle and getting a new phone I was unable to download the title again for review as it was no longer available on Netgalley.

I’m really sorry about this and hope that it won’t affect you allowing me to read and review your titles in the future.

Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity.
Natalie.

This was an unforgettable debut, perfect for fans of Wonder by R.J Palacio. Following Ava Lee as she returns to high school after a house fire that resulted in the deaths of her parents and cousin and leaving her with burns on 60% of her body. A highly emotional, heartfelt novel following characters that were realistically written making it easy to become invested in their stories.

Thank you to NetGalley and to Simon & Schuster Children's UK for providing a copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book was good in a teenager kind of way. But then that is the genre. It was up to date in its writing and references. Some clever writing. A feel good story line with a predictable ending but still good. Girl does good in tragic circumstances. No real twists or turns that leave you guessing. Easy read aimed at teenagers in my opinion.

This book starts a year after Ava survived a fire that killed her parents and sister cousin and after months of recovery, it's time she goes back to school instead of being homeschooled. Also time for a support group. Ava has suffered extreme face burns and does not look forward to leaving her house everyday.

With this topic, some Ableism is expected. Internal Ableism is something every Disabled person has to deal with at some point, But I did notice some by Ava that wasn't internal, both physically disabled characters mock mental disabilities. "Spastic" is used which I know that author being American; she might not know that term is offensive and it could be argued that Ava is being ableist against herself but that term is very specific so I think it probably should have been changed for the UK publication. Though, don't worry the term Selective Mutism was used as an insult and not capitalised correctly, so there went my goodwill to this book. This could have been used as a way of making the character unlikable, yet even then unchallenged Ableism is not the way to do it. If not familiar with Selective Mutism then you might not pick up on what a shitty thing this is to say. Maybe the author just doesn't that there is an anxiety disorder called Selective Mutism. Either way, it is a disorder and its not okay to use it that way. I get all the characters are the worst. You don't need to use Ableism against other people to make a character unlikeable. Ableism is not acceptable in media unless its there to be challenged and it was not challenged.

This book does deal with Internal Ableism and with having burn survivers that makes sense. It's mostly Ava coming to grips with her new appearance and a touch on her loss of mobility. There also ableist related bullying and a mean girl thing going on.

So I am Disabled, so I appreciated the emphasis on how bad inspiration porn is, but I did think some of the advice given by the supposed therapist was terrible. My Disability is invisible so I don't get questions unless I open that conversation but you do not owe anyone an explanation or time, about what you've went through.Kids are slightly different, but Adults should know better and you do not need to be a role model for them.

The characters are all unlikable,I mean I think Piper is meant to be the worst but so are lot of the character we're meant to like. Pipper could just be 16-year-old with bad coping mechanisms. But there are points that we are meant to be liking and relating to these characters and I still would happily throw them off a bridge or as the kids say Yeet them. Ava has a really shitty attitude about everything, some of it is understandable and she meant to develop away from it. It just this seems like always been this way, even before the fire. I think more time was needed for character-development.

All these characters have trauma so I feel sorry for them sometimes but they not real and I hate the one character who doesn't have trauma but that's awkward because he's also the only person of colour in this book. He's a "nice" guy who doesn't know shit about the thing he's trying to gatekeep you from. It being a traditionally feminine subject doesn't change that.

This is a friendship heavy book, which I do love, except its love triangle where no one likes each other. I thought this book was going to go in another way but it doesn't. Piper's friendship to Ava is both a good and bad thing at times, I would have liked to see that explored more. I thought they were going to be more self-reflection of each other problems, which they are but not dealt with. In favour, we have a pointless romance with a "Nice" guy. A lot relationships are introduced and we don't get to them which would have been a lot more interesting than the musical stuff. This book also has homophobia and no Queer characters so definitely not fun. New rule you don't get have homophobia in a book when you have no Queer characters. The benefit of the doubt is that making a statement about toxic masculinity which goes hand in hand with homophobia.

There's also a lot of awkward musical references, like pretending 'Annie' is a vague reference. There are three film adaptions and it been parodied several times. Basically, this book didn't get off on the best foot for me. It does get vaguer but the reaction to them both knowing 'Annie' made me hate both characters in that interaction.

There are lot of obvious plot things through the novel but can be somewhat forgiven being debut novel. It's there are a lot of them. You can really tell that certain things only happen for plot. The musical they doing is the Wizard of Oz, spoilers Ava gets the part of the good witch, who has a two-minute solo that can be sung by almost anyone. It's not a song that needs an amazing voice but it made out to be this amazing song. She sings 'Over the Rainbow' for her audition. When going for a specific part, you sing that song in auditions for the character. It makes no sense for her to sing that in re-auditions which are basically never a thing unless you barely have a chorus. They have an understudy for Dorthy which makes little sense, why not just have her play the good witch and get chorus girl to do the witch if anything happens. It's not a professional show, you're not going to have perfect casting. This is the Andrew Lloyd Webber version so there is a more difficult song for the good witch to sing. This whole thing makes no sense, it seems to take them weeks to host this audition despite knowing that they need to re-cast. Basically, Stewart wanted Ava not to audition but to still be in the show. I wasn't enjoying myself by this point so I'm over fixating on a thing that was a tool for having a shorter timeline but to show character growth.

The writing style was odd and confusing sometimes. Characters are often referred to as if they being introduced for the first time after their names have been established e.g. "the girl in the wheelchair". "The Boy in black." Its basic first person besides that.

Overall, I give this 2/5 stars for Skin Transplants. Nothing new with the Musical stuff (I'm literally listening to another book that has support group scenes and involves a too on the nose musical as well) or the Burn survival which is fine. There's also a lot of books about teenagers getting burnt in accidents and learning to deal with the physical and emotional trauma of that, so it just another one. As my lecturers used to tell me I'm really negative. I didn't like a lot of this book, it has potential but its ableist enough that I'm never gonna recommend it. More importantly, there was just a lot I didn't enjoy. Would I read Stewart again? Maybe. I'm just kinda done, causal ableism gets old quick and to find it in a book that's meant to be dealing with Ableism is not what I'm here for.

If you are an adult and enjoyed wonder then you will love this. This heartfelt book is from the perspective of a burns victim.

This was a really beautiful YA contemporary book, with some lovely messages.

If you liked wonder by R.J Palacio, I think you'll love this book. I would say it's a YA wonder.

I thought this book was really well written. I particularly liked the messages it portrayed about being more than just your scars/appearance. I've not read many books about people with facial disfigurements and burn scars, so this was a really eye opening read.

Obviously it's a YA book so there are going to be a lot of YA tropes. But honestly, I didn't mind them that much in this particular book. It wasn't too cliche.

I really liked the main characters in this book. Particularly, Piper. I really liked her sense of humour.

This book is defintely emotional and poignant. It has a really important message. Although it didn't make me cry at any point, I definitely felt the feels while reading, especially at the end.

Overall, this was a really beautiful impactful book, which made a nice change from all the thrillers I normally read.

TW: bullying, house fire and suicide

This is one of the books all young girls should read. It was so to the point when it came to bullying, bee that new girl on the first day of school.

You could almost remember all those feeling from years ago coming back.

This book is an emotional ride but one I thing need to be read by all

This book is a story of two girls who meet under unusual circumstances and make a lasting friendship.I have given it 5 stars because of its fantastic cover, because everything inside it is so true. And the characters are brilliant, I will be buying this when it comes out!

This is different to the majority of YA books coming out at the moment, there’s no murder or massive mystery going on, it’s a story of coming to terms with massive trauma and life changing events, with friendship at its core. I loved it,

The subject of this book is a difficult one to read in places, and the reactions of some of the kids at school are absolutely awful, but this is real life. The author's research and time spent on this book is clear, and comes across with how realistic it all is. You will love Ava and be completely rooting for her pretty much immediately.

I’d have loved to have seen more from these characters and spent more time with them, which is the indicator of a good book!

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.