Every Exquisite Thing

Starred review from February 22, 2016
The power of the written word is on full display as junior Nanette O’Hare upends her privileged, “normal” life after discovering an out-of-print cult classic. Countless rereads of The Bubblegum Reaper lead her to question her place in the world and everyone’s expectations of her. She rebels by quitting the soccer team and distancing herself from her classmates in favor of befriending Booker, the book’s elderly author, and Alex, another teenage Bubblegum Reaper fan. Alex is a talented poet but a troubled young man, and their ill-fated romance leaves Nanette struggling to move forward; halfway into the novel, she begins to speak and think of herself in the third person at the suggestion of her therapist, June, in an effort to “See self as someone else.” Quick (Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock) continues to excel at writing thought-provoking stories about nonconformity. As June says at one point, “Sometimes you just have to pick a direction and make mistakes.” Through Nanette’s eyes, Quick paints a compelling portrait of a sympathetic teenager going through the trial-and-error process of growing up. Ages 15–up. Agent: Douglas Stewart, Sterling Lord Literistic.

February 15, 2016
After a teacher gifts her a copy of a cult classic novel, student-athlete Nanette O'Hare rebels against her manufactured white, middle-class lifestyle. The fictional cult novel she receives echoes The Catcher in the Rye in reputation. Soon enough Nanette consumes the book, obsessed with its open-ended conclusion. When she befriends the author, a recluse named Nigel Booker, Nanette questions her tendency to conform to the demands of her parents and school life. "I knew I was privileged, but what good was that if I still didn't get to make my own choices?" Acting the matchmaker, Booker introduces Nanette to Alex, a like-minded young poet with a destructive streak to whom she finds herself drawn. "Suddenly, I wanted to be attractive, adored, desired." With a bracing, confrontational style, Quick exposes new angles to this angst-ridden teenage prototype, but the first half of the novel is spent developing a familiar narrative. Nanette's story truly begins to excel in the latter half. As Nanette's new relationships demand more from her, the author plumbs the depths of her isolation. Catharsis here equals a journey of self-sabotage and self-discovery: "You're at a time in your life when you need to feel and believe wildly--that's just the way it is," Booker tells her. Rare moments like these make Nanette's story soar. A strong, well-written female protagonist sets this coming-of-age novel apart. (Fiction. 15 & up)

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Starred review from March 1, 2016

Gr 10 Up-Quick's nuanced story of rebellion and its cost will appeal to fans of Stephen Chbosky and John Green. Nanette O'Hare is drifting through high school playing her role as good girl perfectly when she is given a copy of a cult classic novel called The Bubblegum Reaper. Realizing the path she's on is not of her own choosing, she seeks out the reclusive author and becomes romantically involved with the troubled Alex, another fan. Nanette acts out against her quiet suburban life, only to realize those choices also come with a price. Nanette's development, from the first spark of independence and the initial rush of her relationship with Alex to her subsequent concern and later dread and even her experiment with a return to conformity, rings very true, as does her selfish naivete in believing rebellion is the one path to happiness. Filled with literary allusions to Greek tragedies and The Catcher in the Rye, this work will be a hit with fans of Natalie Standiford's How to Say Goodbye in Robot (Scholastic, 2009). VERDICT Like the many anticonformity books before it, this will find a dedicated audience among teen readers.-Elizabeth Saxton, Tiffin, OH

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2016
Grades 9-12 Nanette is by most accounts a success: she does well in school, has popular friends, is a brilliant soccer player, and already has college recruiters knocking down her door. So why isn't she happy? When her favorite teacher gives her an out-of-print cult novel, The Bubblegum Reaper, the answer starts to shake loose. Fixated on the novel's enigmatic message of quittingLife? School? Convention?she seeks out the author, who eventually introduces her to Alex, another lover of the novel. Together, they puzzle over the novel's mysteries until their friendship builds to a touching romance. But when Alex starts taking the novel's message too far, Nanette starts to see the harm in taking an intransigent stand. Quick creates beautifully well-rounded characters, particularly Nanette, whose first-person narrative, rich with wry observations and a kaleidoscope of meaningful emotions, offers great insight into the mind of a teen on a sometimes-sluggish, spiraling path toward sorting herself out. In the end, Nanette finds there are no easy answers, and maybe none at all, but that's perhaps the most powerful lesson.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

August 29, 2016
In this coming-of-age story, teenager Nanette O’Hare is transformed from conformist to rebel when she reads an out-of-print novel that stresses personal authenticity. With some of her subsequent choices—falling in love with a troubled fellow fan of the book, quitting sports, and refusing to feign interest in her peers’ shallow preoccupations—she discovers the joy of genuine freedom but also the difficult lesson that “you must sometimes pay a high price for individuality.” Johansson is an experienced narrator and voice actress who has performed dozens of audio books, including murder mysteries, middle-grade fiction, and romance. Many of the characters speak with a New Jersey accent, which Johansson nails, adding flavor to the story without sounding caricaturist. Her performance doesn’t shy away from the raw emotions of first love and loss, but it stays in keeping with Nanette’s generally circumspect and level emotional keel: this is a girl who holds things tightly to the chest. Johansson’s narration makes this an engaging and thoughtful listen. Ages 15–up. A Little, Brown hardcover.

July 1, 2016
Conventional high-schooler Nanette's life changes after she befriends Nigel Booker, elderly author of a classic cult novel about nonconformity. Booker sets her up with fellow teen fan Alex, a poet with a troubled, violent past. This is an ode to revolutionary literature--its power to inspire change and incite action (positive and otherwise); it's also an engaging bildungsroman as Nanette comes into her own.

(Copyright 2016 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

May 1, 2016
Conventional high-school soccer star Nanette's life changes irrevocably after she's given The Bubblegum Reaper, a classic cult novel about nonconformity, by her favorite teacher -- and especially after she befriends the book's elderly author, Nigel Booker. Booker sets her up with fellow teen fan Alex, a poet with a troubled, violent past. As Alex and Nanette build a relationship around their mutual love of TBR and counterculture literature, Nanette rejects everything expected of her, including soccer, friendships, and college plans. Alex's response to the book's radical spirit is more extreme, leading to tragic mistakes that show Nanette the hazards of rebellion (and partly explain why Booker has always seemed ashamed of his only novel). This is an ode to revolutionary literature -- its power to inspire change and incite action (positive and otherwise). It's also an engaging bildungsroman as Nanette comes into her own and realizes that adults, even cult hero Booker, don't know it all. Quick's story will speak to teenage eccentrics: loners, rebels, and creative types; the kind to follow Booker's suggestions to read Bukowski and Neruda; those ripe for transformation. But Quick also warns against looking for all the answers in the pages of a book, for literature "made sense only in theoretical situations and didn't often help in real life, where it took a hell of a lot more courage to live than to turn pages all alone." katrina hedeen

(Copyright 2016 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)