From TE Carter, All We Could Have Been is a powerful and heartbreaking look at the assumptions we make about people and how one person's actions can affect everyone around them. Five years ago, Lexie witnessed something that shattered her very core. To cope, she moves from town to town, desperate to hide the darkest of family secrets. In every location, she assumes a new name and flies under the radar as long as she can before anyone figures out who she is—who she's related to. Lexie now lives with her aunt, has minimal interaction with her parents, and has no communication with her brother. But the pain is always there.After starting her newest school, all she wants is to just live life. But how can she when the past keeps threatening to drag her back?

Ellie Frias disappeared long before she vanished.Tormented throughout middle school, Ellie begins her freshman year with a new look: she doesn't need to be popular; she just needs to blend in with the wallpaper.But when the unthinkable happens, Ellie finds herself trapped after a brutal assault. She wasn't the first victim, and now she watches it happen again and again. She tries to hold on to her happier memories in order to get past the cold days, waiting for someone to find her. The problem is, no one searches for a girl they never noticed in the first place. TE Carter's stirring and visceral debut not only discusses and dismantles rape culture, but it also reminds us what it is to be human.