Teeange Adam Thorn’s conservative parents refuse to acknowledge that Adam is gay, and Adam is biding his time until he finishes high school and can leave his small town. His best friend, Angela, and her parents, and his boyfriend, Linus, provide support and humor and affirmation and solace in his life. Against his better judgment, Adam tells his preacher father about the ongoing sexual harassment he’s faced from his boss, Wade. He does so on a day when Wade has gone from implicit to overt coercion, making clear Adam’s job is at risk if he doesn’t have sex with him. He does so following a moment in which he and his dad have genuinely connected and it feels possible. But Adam’s world feels at risk of unraveling when his dad suggests Adam led Wade on, and then confesses how hard he has to work at loving Adam. It’s a gut-wrenching moment, one that underscores the importance of everyone else in Adam’s life who’s there to hold him up. A gripping novel set over the course of a single day punctuated by flashbacks juggles several other elements of Adam’s life as well as an interstitial story about the ghost of a girl recently murdered by her boyfriend who’s in search of revenge. Ness acknowledges a debt to Judy Blume and Forever in his note following a story that is exceptional for multiple reasons, including its sexual and emotional frankness and honesty. (Age 15 and older)

Inspired by Judy Blume’s Forever and Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, this novel that Andrew Smith calls “beautiful, enchanting, [and] exquisitely written” is a new classic about teenage relationships, self-acceptance—and what happens when the walls we build start coming down. A Kirkus Best Book of 2017!

Adam Thorn doesn’t know it yet, but today will change his life.

Between his religious family, a deeply unpleasant ultimatum from his boss, and his own unrequited love for his sort-of ex, Enzo, it seems as though Adam’s life is falling apart.  At least he has two people to keep him sane: his new boyfriend (he does love Linus, doesn’t he?) and his best friend, Angela.

But all day long, old memories and new heartaches come crashing together, throwing Adam’s life into chaos. The bindings of his world are coming untied one by one; yet in spite of everything he has to let go, he may also find freedom in the release.

From the New York Times bestselling author of A Monster Calls comes a raw, darkly funny, and deeply affecting story about the courage it takes to live your truth.