Beautifully told story of a hard subject for the teen audience - as a parent of a child with an auto-immune disease I was certainly drawn in by the medical mystery of the main character. I loved the author’s note. Listening experience was fantastic!

I got this as an audio arc on Netgalley and it has since come out. This is such a beautiful book, so beautifully narrated by a seasoned narrator. It broke my heart and stitched it back together. As a disabled person I hope more doctors trust people when they say something is wrong. People know their bodies.

"Stronger at the Seams" by Shannon Stocker is a teen and young adult fictional drama novel. It is about Twylight, aka Twyla, a girl about to enter high school. She is on the field hockey team. During practice, she keeps getting nauseous and then spacing out.

Her mother passed away a few years ago. She has a younger brother called Wolfy, who clearly has ADHD based on his behavior of never sitting still and always constantly talking and obsessing about weird science facts. They have a loving father who is still mourning the loss of his wife.

Twyla has two close female friends who start to ghost her as she gets more sick. She has a long-time male friend who starts to like her romantically.

Twyla keeps having symptoms, and doctors tell her it's just constipation and to take Miralax daily. (FYI, Miralax isn't nearly as bad as they make it sound, especially mixed into a hot drink or juice. I've had to take it a lot for my own health issues.) More importantly, it doesn't stop her symptoms. She knows something is really wrong with her, but neither the doctors nor her father are listening to her.

Eventually, they do get an accurate diagnosis. The rest is skipped until the epilogue. The story is more about her trying to figure out what's wrong.

The author's note at the end is important and poignant.

Characters - 5/5
Writing - 4/5
Plot - 3/5
Pacing - 3/5
Unputdownability - 3/5
Enjoyment - 3/5
Narration - 4/5 by Kate Rudd
Cover - 4/5
Overall - 29/8 = 3 4/8
Rounded up to 4 stars

Thank you to Netgalley, Blink Audiobooks, and Shannon Stocker for providing this audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

Longer review to follow. So glad I didn’t miss this one!

updated ...
Stronger at the Seams is a young adult novel. The young female protagonist is in high school and plays field hockey. She has been getting bouts of nausea. Seems kind of random, comes and goes. Her school friends seem to be giving her the cold shoulder. There is an absolutely awesome younger brother who loves obscure facts and a dad (with some dad jokes).

This was a really great book and the audio version was extremely well done. Highly, highly recommended. And then the authors note blew me away. So don't miss this one. My heart and prayers go out to families in this situation.

5 stars. Absolutely.

Many thanks to the author/Shannon Stocker and her family, NetGalley and Blink Publishing for the opportunity to listen to the advance listen version of Stronger at the Seams in exchange for an honest review. Approx 8 hours. Publication date Oct 2024.

I adored this book. It was the perfect "sad girl" book, one of my favourite things to read. As a kid who has spent a lot of time in hospitals, I really appreciated how the story was written because it really captured the experience. It felt very real - the multiple doctors it took to figure it out, andI liked how all of the character relationships were built. I would recommend this to anyone and everyone, but especially people with chronic illnesses because this has amazing representation. A new favourite read.

I absolutely love these books and this author I can’t wait to see what is next. I am blessed to be able to read this as an arc. It is easily a new favorite.

I appreciate the opportunity Netgalley provided to listen and review this title. Overall I really liked Stronger at the Seams. It did feel like the plot was a tiny bit rushed, but overall it was a great read. Shannon Stocker did an excellent job portraying the emotional journey that her main character went through, from the anxiety to the anger, to the fear from what she was going through. It was also a very realistic view, in my opinion, as her main character is a teenager who had to deal with the unfairness of missing out on typical teen activities.

Overall, I really enjoyed this listen.

This was an engaging and moving middle grade/YA book. The narration was good. I loved the field hockey parts, how confident Twyla was in her athletics even when other things were uncertain. I can relate to that!

"We all have scars. And every scar has a story."
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Stronger at the Seams follows Twyla as she starts high school, but also while she begins to experience some health difficulties that are worrying.
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One of the things that this book does really well is it has really realistic and engaging characters, which is important for me personally as a reader because if I don't like the characters I'm not going to be very invested in their story.
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I think the relationships between the characters were really well done, it had me very engaged with the story. So much so that at the time of writing this, I got access to the audiobook two days ago, and I'd finished it within 24 hours.
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One of the important messages within this book is self advocacy. No one knows your body better than you, and if something doesn't feel right then speak up. Even if parents or medical professionals think they've found the cause, if you think there's more to it say something, seek a second opinion, request further testing.
•
Thank you to NetGalley for sending me an ALC copy of this book.

I've been looking forward to this book since I first heard about it and it exceeded my expectations. Shannon Stocker's masterful writing kept me up late into the night wanting to find out how Twyla would navigate her illness, her relationship with her friends, her sometimes endearing but also sure to get on anyone's nerves little brother. The incredible relationships between Twyla and her father, Twyla and the mother she's missing who died before the book begins, and the other important characters in the book are all woven together in such realistic ways that I felt like I knew them all when this beautiful book ended. I loved the science and genetics she was learning and how it served her trying to figure out her her illness.
The aspects of this book that are personal to author Shannon Stocker make it even more poignant and heartfelt. Highly recommend!

Stocker, Shannon. Stronger at the Seams. Blink, 2024, 9780310162351 $18.99. 288p. Grades 6-9

Description: Twyla is entering high school excited for the next four years, but when she starts to feel extremely nauseous and get chronic headaches her father takes her to the doctor. What is passed off as constipation only continues to get worse. Twyla doesn’t want to be benched from the field hockey field so she tries her best to hide her symptoms from her family and friends. Her symptoms continue to worsen, yet no one is listening to her, so she decided to take matters into her own hands and research her symptoms herself.

Thoughts: What a beautiful, yet heartbreaking read. Stocker did a phenomenal job bringing to light the difficult yet necessary nature of advocating for yourself and grieving a parent. This would be a phenomenal read for any student who may struggle to advocate for themselves and their needs.

Realistic Fiction

Tags: Chronic Illness, Field Hockey, Diverse Family Structure, Cancer, Brain Tumor, Coming of Age, Friendship, Family, Self Advocacy, Loss of a Parent

I absolutely LOVED this beautiful, heartfelt, and important book! Shannon's writing is exquisite. Children will feel seen and cared for.

4.75 of 5 stars.

I genuinely can’t remember the last time a YA novel tugged at my heart strings this much!
What an anxiety-ridden time to be alive anyway, but to deal with unknown medical issues in high school? Yikes. Stocker beautifully captured the uncertainties of beginning high school, the grief of losing a parent, & the frustrations of voiced but unheard medical concerns.
Wanted a little more closure/understanding of Twyla’s spirituality re: Angela & Sophie.

I feel like this is a great book for those aged 12-14. It deals with friendships, what it's like to suddenly be a 'sick kid' and it's a great introduction to being someone navigating the health care system.

As someone who has been ignored, mis-diagnosed, and put in the 'too hard' basket my entire life in regards to medical things, I can relate to that aspect.

There were parts of this book that felt a little rushed, and other parts I thought could've been fleshed out more. Especially regarding Angela.


The vexation kicked in with the HP references. There was no need to refer to round glasses as "Harry Potter" glasses. Round glasses works fine. And "Doctor Dumbledore"? Seriously. Also absolutely unnecessary. Gandalf also would've worked. Old white man with white beard would've worked. Doctor Santa also would've worked. Zero excuses, and an entire star deducted for this. It's 2024 - there are zero excuses for HP references anymore.

I'm glad Twyla got diagnosed and treated - that is the hardest part of any illness. It was also great to see the misdiagnoses being properly addressed. Twyla constantly said she knew her body, and she knew that something else was going on. But ultimately, it was something unrelated that happened to get her treated - doctors just suck when it comes to doing things that are harder.

But the ending was a little rushed.

Oh. And Twyla's friends? Absolute wankers. Talking about her behind her back? Constantly hanging out without her? Texting their group chat to say having Twyla around was bad luck? Only to swoop in and say they thought they were the bad luck? They were so horrible. I wouldn't have forgiven them.

So apparently I had a lot more thoughts than I realised.

It was good, on the whole. And definitely something younger kids will enjoy - like I said, especially if a kid is "suddenly sick".


The audio was fantastic. The narrator did a brilliant job.

Such a cute book …loved how wolfie’s disability is thrown in too ….autism is a new topic for me ….writing is full of information that is very intriguing to me

This is a wonderful book! It follows the story of a teen experiencing unknown medical issues while navigating school and the worries of being a teenager . I love how it shares the importance of self-advocacy, communication, friendship, and compassion, all while being filled with excitement, drama, emotion and suspense that makes you want to read more.

this book shows how fantastic disabled and chronic illness fiction can be.
thank you so very much to netgalley, author shannon stocker, narrator kate rudd, and blink publishers for the audiobook copy in exchange for an honest review.
as someone who is chronically ill and disabled this book was so REAL. twyla’s journey to answers, is very relatable.
marker spoiler for the gastroparesis but i was wondering the whole time because my mom has it. i liked seeing the relationship with wolfie, my son is wolfies age and i thought it was cute how they interacted as siblings and how they processed the story.

This was one of the most beautiful books I have read in a long time. While it’s marketed at YA, I think anyone could enjoy this book, and I think it would have a particular market amongst parents.

The writing was beautiful, but it was the story itself that had so much heart, with the MC Twyla wonderfully fleshed out and incredibly authentic as a teen character. I also thought Twyla’s search for answers and attachment to certain solutions (whether true or not) was so realistic. There was also much grace in the representation of illness and grief, and an important message about validation and self advocacy.

I feel quite emotional after reading, so I know that this book was a high ranking one for me.