Not Everything Leaves Bruises

One year after seventeen-year-old Jacob "Jakey" Lymore was found in the Blackwater River, the town of Blackwater Falls is trying to move on.
Tyler de la Cruz can't.
Jakey wasn't just his best friend—he was family. The kind of friend who knew your secrets before you spoke them aloud. The kind who felt like home.
When strange encounters begin to convince Tyler that his friend may not be gone after all, he is drawn into a trail of hidden clues: a secret room, forgotten sketches, and a private online journal left behind by the boy everyone thought they knew.
As Tyler, Nikki Green, Travis Miller, and Jacin McCleod piece together Jakey's final months, they discover a truth far more complicated than rumor or blame. In a world of social media, quiet cruelty, and unspoken pain, they begin to realize that tragedy is rarely caused by one person or one moment—but by countless small wounds that leave no visible scars.
Set in the hills of eastern Oklahoma and the Cherokee Nation, Not Everything Leaves Bruises is a moving story of friendship, grief, found family, first love, and the courage to choose kindness in a world that desperately needs it.
Because not everything leaves bruises.
And sometimes, the marks we leave on each other last forever.

Content Advisory: This novel contains mature themes, including bullying, mental health, suicide, and grief. Reader discretion is advised, and parental guidance is recommended for younger audiences.