Addy's life changed forever the day she purposely let her father drown.
Immersed in a new world at boarding school, she learns she's not the only one with secrets. While trying to navigate the minefield of painful lies that seem to be rattling around her family's past, she meets soft on the eyes and heavy on the heart, Leo. Despite the distractions surrounding her, darkness creeps in, and Addy must decide to cling to her new life and friends or let the monsters hidden in all the secrets carry her away. The choice is hers, sink or swim.
*story includes mature life situations and language (contains some trigger topics, please be aware)
Author Interview:
Question: What made you want to write Wash Me Away?
Wendy: We watched friends struggle with the loss of a child due to teen suicide. It in no way is similar to the story we find in Wash Me Away, but it was the seed from which this idea grew. The pain didn't stop when their child died, but ripped through countless others, affecting them in ways where they will never be the same. I couldn't seem to wrap my mind around how I would ever be able to handle something like that as a parent. What would I say to my child when they were lost? Would I even see the struggle or would it be so well hidden nobody would know? Then there were also the thoughts of, what if something more would have been done to help my friends child. More than anything you want to rewind time for that family and try to make the pieces fall differently. I wanted to write something that maybe could give teens who were in a dark place a sliver of hope. We can't magically fix problems, but sometimes, in life we just have to find enough hope to make it to tomorrow, and then tomorrow might just be better.
Question: You touch on other sensitive subject matter in the book. Was there a reason you chose to tackle so many issues?
Wendy: Honestly? I have two daughters of which I am probably overprotective. When conceiving the story I tried to think of something that terrified me. Something that I know is a trigger for depression that many young girls are unfortunately faced with. Incest, sexual abuse, suicide, abandonment, divorce, death, secrets, adoption, all of these are issues teens are facing today, either themselves or someone they know. I wanted to talk about these issues in a way that was real and relatable.
Question: Without spoiling anything, why did you choose to end it the way you did?
Wendy: Okay, I know I am known for Happily Ever Afters in a lot of my books, and while this ending isn't tragic, it's not what a lot of readers are used to from me. This goes back to the sliver of hope. I really didn't want anyone reading this book to think "well my knight in shining armor is never coming," because there is a good chance in real life you will have to be the hero of your own story. I wanted to empower readers to write their own heroic next scene. I wanted to show them the power is in their hands to take their lives back from whatever monsters may be lurking just below the surface, trying to pull them under. It's not easy. It takes fight. And there is help if they want to seek it out.
Question: Will there ever be more books in the series?
Wendy: I originally intended for this to be a stand-alone, but there is an entire other story to be told around Julia. I suppose we will just have to wait and see what the readers want. Julia is such a complex story and in exploring her tale we get a lot more of Willow and her family history.