Anger Is Only a Shadow

From National Book Award-winning, New York Times-bestselling author and renowned poet Elizabeth Acevedo comes a white-knuckle journey to self-understanding and doing the right thing, no matter the cost.

Lil is anything but small. She’s rebellious, she's loyal; she's figuring out what kind of good person she wants to be, or if she wants to be a good person at all. But more than anything? Lil wants to be free.

When her instinct for freedom leads to another stay in D.C. juvenile detention, Lil knows she’s lucky to just be on probation. But judgment, guilt, and an ankle monitor weigh heavily on her, and she can’t shake that pinned-down feeling.

The only person who might understand is her big brother, Aldwin. Except he’s more distant now than just the hundred miles where he’s away at college. Something’s been off with him for a couple of months, but only Lil seems to realize how important it is to get to him.

As her court hearing ticks closer, a question looms over Lil as the missed phone calls and strange texts from her brother pile up: will she follow the rules until her sentencing, or put her future freedom on the line?

Elizabeth Acevedo is the New York Times-bestselling author of The Poet X, which won the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, the Michael L. Printz Award, the Pura Belpré Award, the Carnegie Medal, the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award, and the Walter Award. She is also the author of With the Fire on High—which was named a best book of the year by the New York Public Library, NPR, Publishers Weekly, and School Library Journal—and Clap When You Land, which was a Boston Globe–Horn Book Honor book and a Kirkus Prize finalist. She holds a BA in Performing Arts from The George Washington University and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Maryland. Acevedo has been a fellow of Cave Canem and Cantomundo, and a participant in the Callaloo Writer’s Workshops. She is a National Poetry Slam Champion, and resides in Washington, DC, with her family.

• Publisher: Quill Tree Books
  
• Publish Date: September 15, 2026
  
• Pages: 336
  
• Language: English
  
• Type: Hardcover
  
• EAN/UPC: 9780062882790
  
• Dimensions: 8.3 X 5.5 X 0.0 inches | 1 pounds
  
• BISAC Categories: Teens & YA