When you’re Brown, you’re not to be trusted—calorie intake, open doors, food “sweeps.” You dream of Blue, of private time and the mere steps remaining to the world outside.

For Shoshana Winnick and Rowan Parish, Blue is as far away as home. Shoshana, a cheer-lebrity on the reality show Cheer Champions, doesn’t want to be thin. She just wants to maintain her tumbling prowess, until an on-camera meltdown and lack of food gets her shipped off to Recovery and Relief (RR), an eating disorder rehab center.

Rowan, on the other hand, has been avoiding food her entire life thanks to her mom’s “chew and spit” guidance. But she keeps quiet about her life before RR—anything to keep new girl Shoshana bonded to her in every way possible. The closer they grow, the closer they come to being sent home, returning to the pressures of their separate lives. And the harder it becomes to break the self-destructive patterns that sent them to RR in the first place. Ultimately, the girls will have to make a choice: be healthy on their own, or stay sick together.

Heartfelt, inspiring, and deeply human, BEFORE WE WERE BLUE is a book readers will race to finish, with two clever yet flawed girls who completely steal your heart.