Save Me an Orange Re-imagined

Some girls grow up in houses with bedtime stories. Vicki Brooks grew up in a house with noise — the kind that lived in the walls, hid under dinner plates, and taught her that silence was the safest language she’d ever learn.
Save Me an Orange Re-imagined is an original poetry collection born from the seed planted by Hayley Grace’s bestselling debut, Save Me an Orange. Across sixteen poems and four unflinching sections — Roots, Peeling, Halves, and Juice — Brooks traces the full arc of a life almost lost and slowly, imperfectly reclaimed: from a childhood shaped by what was never said, through the raw and ugly middle of healing, into the quiet miracle of a Sunday morning kitchen where the light comes through the window and, for the first time, she doesn’t want to be anywhere else.
This is a book about the girl who swallowed her voice at seven and buried a list at fifteen. About the therapist who put down her pen and said, “You don’t have to perform here.” About the friend who sat down at an empty lunch table, split an orange in half, and changed everything without saying a word.
It is about the terrifying, beautiful work of choosing to stay — not because the world handed you a grand reason, but because someone handed you a piece of fruit and the ordinary sweetness of it reminded you that your mouth was made for more than swallowing silence.
Sharp, then warm. Bruised, but still sweet. Save Me an Orange Re-imagined is for anyone who thought the world would end when they were sixteen — and for the person sitting next to them who didn’t know they were holding a life in their hand.

“even when you think there’s nothing left / life gives us oranges / so go share one with your best friend / maybe they thought the world would end / when they were 16 too.” — Hayley Grace, save me an orange