MY BOOK CAME OUT THIS WEEK & I FORGOT TO SEND A NEWSLETTER ABOUT IT OOPS
I cannot wait to share all about my incredible launch event with Sarah Dessen and my family and friends at Flyleaf Books, but for now, I’ll just say that Not Like Other Girls is officially in the world, and I could not be more thrilled.
This is what I wrote about it:
NOT LIKE OTHER GIRLS as it is today, on its release day, is not the book I thought I was writing when I started it, uh . . . a long time ago. In my head, this was a fun little mystery with a fun little fake dating subplot, so when my first readers referenced Jo’s trauma, I remember thinking, “No, no, you’ve got it wrong; Jo is fine.”
But I was telling the story wrong.
I was telling it wrong because I didn’t know how to tell mine.
There are so many points over the last however many years—even after it sold, even after I’d done my edits, even after the ARC was printed—where I’d get struck with panic that I’d made the wrong choice to share this book. But the crucial thing is that the choice was always mine.
I was recently talking with my therapist about how badly I wish I wasn’t so gripped with fear—of being seen and known and painfully vulnerable. And we got to talking about the long history of YA books about sexual assault, and how so wholly necessary these books are for teens, and what a privilege it is that my own book is now part of this history, too. She said something else that stood out to me: in a lot of ways, SA is a topic sealed off behind closed doors, and sometimes all someone needs to understand their own experience, to talk about it, to start their path toward healing, is for that door to open up the tiniest, tiniest bit.
What an honor it is that NOT LIKE OTHER GIRLS might open that door.
And before I go . . .
I am so, so thrilled to share that Not Like Other Girls is the Target YA Book Club Pick for May! Starting May 7th, you can find my gal at any store with her shiny new sticker!
I’m endlessly grateful for all the support Jo and this book and I’ve been getting — and I really cannot wait for what’s next for us.
Until next time!