The Girl Who Refused to Wake Up

Summary

I was born a natural optimist, the kind of girl who found silver linings in storm clouds. Yet, here I was, diagnosed with a case of clinical depression so severe the doctors looked at me with pity.

The reason was simple, though no doctor could ever find it in a blood test: my parents had traded my joy away. They had walked into a place called The Ninth Exchange and bartered my capacity for happiness to buy my younger sister’s health.

When Piper was born with osteogenesis imperfecta—brittle bone disease—my parents were consumed by a terrified, suffocating love for her.