Virginia’s parents continue their toxic focus on body type, fitness and achievement.

The themes of social and familial estrangement and body image that grounded the earlier work remain strong. And what has happened to the curvaceous Virginia Shreves since last we met? For one thing, she’s discovered that she’s not willing to stick with a boyfriend at all costs, as she might have done earlier. “Froggy Welsh the Fourth is trying to get inside my jeans.” So begins Carolyn Mackler’s THE UNIVERSE IS EXPANDING AND SO AM I (Bloomsbury, 304 pp., $17.99 ages 14 and up), the long-awaited sequel to “The Earth, My Butt and Other Round Things” (though it stands on its own, too). Who is at fault? Did we love her wrong? How did we fail? But with each flashback and discovery about that long year when she was faling in love - and when her mother was falling apart - what emerges is a story about love with all its limitations and complications, and the story of how a girl and her passions can survive it. She never shies away from the awful questions that are left in the wake of such a loss. But here is where Pan’s novel shines most. The anatomy of any suicide is a painful one for the survivors. And the slow reveal of Leigh’s relationship with Axel and the events that led to her mother’s despondency offer a satisfying payoff. This device can sometimes feel forced, but the larger questions it raises - how and why do we remember events? - is compelling. With the aid of incense sticks Leigh finds in a drawer and the personal objects she must destroy in order to get to the visions of past, she is able to revisit events and memories - her own and those of her loved ones.

The astonishing color of after book