“Sympathizer.It’s only slightly better than the other word that followed me for years after my mom’s death, a snakelike hiss, undulating, leaving its trail of poison: Suicide.A sideways word, a word that people whisper and mutter and cough: a word that must be squeezed out behind cupped palms or murmured behind closed doors. It was only in my dreams that I heard the word shouted, screamed.”

American author, young adult and middle-grade fiction

Lauren Oliver is an American author of young adult and middle-grade fiction. She is known for novels including Before I Fall, Panic, and the Delirium trilogy, and for the range of her work across several age groups. Before I Fall was adapted into a major motion picture in 2017, and Panic was later developed as a series by Amazon Studios, where Oliver served as creator, writer, and showrunner. Her books have been translated into more than thirty languages, and she was a 2012 nominee for the E. B. White Read Aloud Award for Liesl & Po. She also wrote the middle-grade fantasy novel The Spindlers.