I'd rather burn than bloom
(Book)

Alternating between present day and flashbacks, multiracial Filipina-American teen Marisol tries to figure out who she really is in the wake of her mother's sudden death.

Marisol and her mom were forever locked in an argument with no beginning and no end. When her mother dies suddenly, Marisol is left with no one to fight against, haunted by all the things that she both said and didn't say. When Marisol sleeps with her best friend's boyfriend--- and then punches said best friend in the face--- she is left alone with nothing but a burning anger. As a new friendship begins to develop, Marisol reluctantly starts to open up to the possibility there's something else on the other side of that anger--- something more to who she is, and who she could be.