Just when most girls their age are primarily concerned with boyfriends and parties, senior recitals and SAT scores, high school senior Kate and her younger sister Mary are facing challenges that could stymie people twice their age. Their mother has been in a persistent vegetative state since a car accident two years before, and their father has just died suddenly from an apparent heart attack. Now their only living relative, their Aunt Julia, doesn't even seem to want to be around them, let alone take on the care of her two nieces and her comatose sister. To make matters worse, the small family's finances are far from secure, and the conservative church where their father was pastor is more than eager to force the girls to vacate the parsonage and make room for the handsome young preacher they've hired as his replacement.

"Stork's recognition of Christian faith as a powerful influence in many young people's lives...is unconventional and refreshing, making this novel about two sisters an important one for families, schools, and perhaps even church groups to read and discuss together."

Even though Kate and Mary have humble roots and have been raised very strictly --- especially after their mother's accident --- both girls have ambitions. Kate, especially, longs to fulfill her mother's dream that she attend Stanford and become a doctor. Mary has a real talent for painting, even though she hasn't felt much like creating art since their mom's accident. But as long as their mother remains on life support, both girls are bound to stay in El Paso. Kate's boyfriend Simon offers to save her situation by proposing marriage, but is that what Kate really wants? And what about Mary? Can she learn who she really is, away from her father's strict influence?

Francisco X. Stork courageously writes about topics that many other young adult novelists shy away from: autism, juvenile crime, and, in this case, end-of-life and euthanasia issues, not to mention questions about religious faith and doctrine. He also sets IRISES in a world that is common to thousands of teenagers but largely underrepresented in YA fiction. Kate and Mary's family is not wealthy. Mary wears hand-me-downs and has never shopped at the mall; the girls know about gangs and go to a school where going to college at all --- let alone a prestigious school like Stanford rather than the local University of Texas at El Paso --- is not the norm. For Kate and Mary's classmates, getting married and having babies right after high school is often the aspiration, and becoming a restaurant manager is where ambition begins and ends. Readers who see themselves in these pages will appreciate that Stork sets his novel here; those for whom this world is unfamiliar should also appreciate that Stork depicts it with sensitivity, honesty and genuine care.

What's more, Stork treats the girls' religious faith --- as well as the religious extremism of their father and the ambition and hypocrisy of the handsome young minister --- with remarkable thoughtfulness and nuance. Much of the book's theme rests on the girls' response to a single Sunday morning sermon ("We need to be awakened, sometimes through pain, to recognize the true nature of love.") Stork's recognition of Christian faith as a powerful influence in many young people's lives --- without reducing belief either to a naïve panacea or a domineering force --- is unconventional and refreshing, making this novel about two sisters an important one for families, schools, and perhaps even church groups to read and discuss together.