Find Layla

By: Meg Elison

Narrated by: Jesse Vilinsky

Length: 6 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's Summary

A neglected girl's chaotic coming-of-age becomes a trending new hashtag in a novel about growing up and getting away by an award-winning author.

Underprivileged and keenly self-aware, SoCal fourteen-year-old Layla Bailey isn't used to being noticed. Except by mean girls who tweet about her ragged appearance. All she wants to do is indulge in her love of science, protect her vulnerable younger brother, and steer clear of her unstable mother.

Then a school competition calls for a biome. Layla chooses her own home, a hostile ecosystem of indoor fungi and secret shame. With a borrowed video camera, she captures it all. The mushrooms growing in her brother's dresser. The black mold blooming up the apartment walls. The unmentionable things living in the dead fridge. All the inevitable exotic toxins that are Layla's life. Then the video goes viral.

When Child Protective Services comes to call, Layla loses her family and her home. Defiant, she must face her bullies and friends alike, on her own. Unafraid at last of being seen, Layla accepts the mortifying reality of visibility. Now she has to figure out how to stay whole and stand behind the truth she has shown the world.

©2020 Meg Elison (P)2020 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Hidden Gem

I came across this book and found the summary to be only semi interesting, but I decided to take a chance on it anyways…and I was NOT disappointed! It’s a great book on bullying & not judging a book by it’s cover! It’s too bad it’s not part of a series bc I’d definitely buy the next ones!

Audio performance best I've ever heard

Not many stories I hear or read are completed in one session. This was one of them. This has to be the best narrated book I've ever heard. I actually forgot I was listening to someone else on many occasions throughout this story. They captured every nuance of Layla that it felt as if they Were Layla. At least to me. Kudos to the voice actor: Jesse Vilinsky

This will stick with me

My husband makes fun of me because I listen to a lot of YA books. This one will haunt me. As a mom, a sister, a daughter, a friend. I think this book has something we can all learn from. The narration was great too. So much emotion in all the right places.

Wow!

Very sad how this actually happens in real life to children! It was very touching and moving. Almost had me crying at work. Loved every single thing about it!

Find Layla

Meg Elison does an excellent job with her characters and their personas. The story is riveting and you cannot wait to find out more. The end makes you want to know more about Layla and how she proceeds towards her favored career.

Amazing

I needed to read this book for a book club. And listening was 1000% better. The story itself would have gotten 5 stars. However, the individual reading made the entire book so much more intense and raw with emotion.

Heart wrenching

Well written. Excellent narration. Will listen again, just one of those stories to hear again

Meg Ellison Can Make You Leave Your World

Oh this book. Oh the feels. Thank you Meg for writing this compassionate, real and heart wrenching story. I hope Layla grows up to do bright things and we can read about her again sometime.

Remarkable Story

This story line of this book is riveting, and the narration is exceptional. I felt as though I knew this girl.

What an awesome book!

Great book and fantastic narration!!! Narrator transports you into the book and it is a phenomenal experience.