Published: July 27, 2010
Author Blythe Woolston's Debut YA Novel The Freak Observer Follows One Girl Out of Orbit
MINNEAPOLIS - (BUSINESS WIRE) - Where does one person belong in the cosmos? How can a teenage girl find
reason and order when her universe is spinning out of control? Life for
Loa is like an unruly science experiment-fixed variables are changing,
volatile toxins are mixing, and spontaneous combustion seems imminent.
Written by Blythe Woolston and published by Carolrhoda Lab , a new line
of distinctive fiction for young adults from Carolrhoda Books, The
Freak Observer provides a gritty and realistic account of Loa's
life as a girl on the brink.
A struggling high school upperclassman, Loa is haunted by grief over her
sister's death. Her world is rocked once again when, a year later, she
witnesses the death of her friend, Esther. As Loa attempts to cope, she
turns away from the busy, rustic, functioning family life she has known
and turns to alcohol and aimlessness. She also turns to Corey, a
charismatic but troubled debate-teamer who convinces her to become his
partner and, perhaps, his friend.
But the friendship the two form is anything but normal. Are these
misfits truly friends, or simply crutches for each other to lean on? As
they grow close, Corey's mother decides to send him away. After a
photograph of Loa and Corey together surfaces online, Loa's world is
once again thrown into doubt. What do the friendly, if odd, postcards
Corey keeps sending her mean? Can she ever trust her friend again? As
Loa struggles to identify Corey's place in her universe, she comes to
better understand her own.
In a clear and heartbreaking narrative voice, Blythe Woolston imagines
the mind of one tough but troubled teenage girl. But the continual theme
of physics-its universal laws and observations—broadens the scope of the
story. In recounting Loa's search for her place in the world, The
Freak Observer invites readers to ponder the nature of that
world, and to find their own place in it.
Visit www.carolrhodalab.com
for a discussion guide and free downloads.
Available for
review at NetGalley! Sign up for your free account and download your
copy of The Freak Observer at www.netgalley.com.
About the Author
Blythe Woolston doesn't remember
learning how to read, but she suspects someone taught her as a ploy to
keep her out of trouble in a slightly dangerous world full of bears,
chainsaws, and swift rivers. Today she reads books and writes the
indexes that appear on their final pages. The Freak Observer is
her first novel. Follow her blog at www.blythewoolston.com.
About the Publisher
Carolrhoda Lab is dedicated to
distinctive, provocative, boundary-pushing fiction for teens and their
sympathizers. Carolrhoda Lab probes and examines the young-adult
condition one novel at a time, affording YA authors and readers an
opportunity to explore and experiment with thoughts, ideas, and
paradigms in the human condition. All of us at Carolrhoda Lab are proud
to proclaim our lifelong adolescence and our commitment to publishing
exceptional fiction about the teenage experience.
Carolrhoda Books is a division of Lerner Publishing Group. For further
information, visit our website at www.lernerbooks.com.
PUBLICATION DATE:
August 2010
$16.95 Hardcover, Jacketed
$16.95 eBook
Ages 12-18
HC:
978-0-7613-6212-8
EB: 978-0-7613-6544-0
208 Pages ◠5 ¼" x 7 ½"
To Purchase: Visit your local bookstore , order by phone at
800-328-4929, or visit us online at www.lernerbooks.com.
Follow us online:
Blog: http://carolrhoda.blogspot.com/
Twitter:
twitter.com/LernerBooks
Facebook:
Lerner
Publishing Group
Lerner Publishing Group
Lindsay Matvick, 800-328-4929, x385
Senior
Publicist
lmatvick@lernerbooks.com
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