Being a kid is hard. It’s even harder when you don’t fit in. It’s even harder when you have a family that comes across as unusual. Kids are cruel; they say things that, in a few years, they will learn they cannot say. Though sometimes those feelings are already messed up. In Losing Austin, we follow a troubled child as he does his best to cope with a brother who seems to be autistic, and then his vanishing.

Losing Austin follows Colton through the years. People think he made his brother vanish. He was a troubled kid after all, with a more troubled brother. This book highlights painful conflicts between family, friends, and brothers, and serves as a poignant reminder that you may not always be able to apologize later if something goes wrong.

The characters in Losing Austin are well-written, and the mental and physical traumas endured by various characters certainly feel realistic. From the autism-like screaming of young Austin to the troubled coping of his younger brother and the heartbreak of a mother at the end of her rope, this story will make you feel.