ONE BIG MESS
Cover Design from Beetiful Book Covers
Fourteen-year-old Gracie Taylor lives in a messy house, but it’s not her mess. Her mother has been a compulsive hoarder for the last six years, and it’s only getting worse. Their kitchen is covered with towers of Tupperware. The dining room table is buried under clutter. And in the living room, clothing fills every available space.
Her back-at-home sister promises to help, but all she seems to do is argue with their mother. Her best friend Jilly is no help either. She’s too concerned about her new boyfriend at her new school to listen to Gracie’s problems. Meanwhile, her mother continues to fill the house with junk.
If Gracie can’t get her mother’s hoarding under control, she can kiss her dreams of film school goodbye. Gracie is the one who takes out the trash. Gracie is the one who keeps the toilets functional. Gracie is the one who clears the clutter blocking the exits. If left to her own devices, her mother would become a level five hoarder in no time.
Her only hope is to get her mother on Clean It Up!, a show that helps compulsive hoarders. But getting her on the show won’t be easy. Fortunately, with the help and support of her film club friends, Gracie forms a plan. It might just take filming the biggest documentary of her life to make it happen.
WHAT READERS ARE SAYING
​
From the first page to the last page, I was captured by Gracie Taylor's story of going from caring for her hoarder Mom to keeping her own life together. -Amazon Reviewer
​
I really enjoyed this book about a subject I've never seen addressed in a novel: The effects of hoarding on a teen trying to make new friends in a new school and on the family's relationships as a whole, and the ways in which our messes become other people's messes in ways we sometimes refuse to see or acknowledge. I found myself rooting for Gracie and her plan to clean up the mess around her, but also rooting for Jennifer because her hoarding, though so detrimental to her family, came from a place of deep pain. I became very invested in the outcome of Gracie's plan, and was a little sad to say goodbye to the characters when the book ended. -Goodreads Reviewer​
I loved Gracie's character and her relationships with her friends, sister, and parents. I was rooting for her and her mom to find some way to clean things up. -Amazon Customer