The world can tip at any moment, a fact that 15-year-old Pearl is all too aware of when her mum dies after giving birth to her baby sister.

Told across the year following her mother's death, Pearl's story is full of bittersweet humour and heartbreaking honesty about how you deal with grief that cuts you to the bone, as she tries not only to come to terms with losing her mum, but also the fact that her sister - the 'rat' - is a constant reminder of why her mum is no longer around.