A gorgeous debut about friendship, grief, and new beginnings set in near-future San Francisco in the aftermath of a catastrophic earthquake and on the cusp of the first human mission to Mars. Celeste Muldoon is alone when the Big One finally hits, because, for the first time ever, her best friend stood her up after school. Nicky and Celeste share a birthday, matching tattoos, an obsession with the upcoming Mars mission, and pretty much everything else. So why did he ghost her on the day she needed him most?
As the quake’s death toll rises and days pass, Nicky and Celeste’s parents fear the worst. But Celeste doesn’t buy it. He couldn’t be dead. Nicky’d spent their senior year selling essays to rich kids and was about to get caught. He’d told Celeste about his plan to vanish, to reinvent himself and escape the disaster he’d created. The quake would be perfect cover.
But she can’t convince anyone that he could still be alive. Only Meo, a mysterious stranger who was somehow mixed up with Nicky, seems to believe, but Celeste has every reason to distrust him—even if her heart races whenever Meo shows up.
When Celeste finds Nicky’s notebook, it sends her and Meo on a quest across the broken city, up the coast through towns sheltering quake refugees, and eventually all the way to Florida, where the mission to Mars is about to lift off.
Susie Nadler was born and raised in San Francisco, where she still lives with her husband and their teenage twins. As a school librarian, she gets to spend most of her time doing the best possible things: reading and talking to kids about books. She has an MFA from the University of Montana and was a Brown Handler writer-in-residence at the San Francisco Public Library.
★ "Nadler’s writing is addictive: readers will be drawn in by the whirlwind of activity, mystery, and teenage drama.”—
SLJ, starred review
★ "A teen searches for her missing best friend following a devastating earthquake in Nadler’s savvy and riveting debut.... Propulsive close-third-person narration feels authentic as it reveals Celeste’s insecurities and chronicles her deepening attraction to Meo. Alternating chapters detail happenings from before the earthquake and count the days following the event, injecting suspense and drama into a tightly woven exploration of friendship, grief, and self-discovery."—
Publishers Weekly, starred review
"A wise, gripping, and poignant tale of a teen finding her way."
—Kirkus
"Susie Nadler, a school librarian making her YA debut, crafts a riveting mystery with real-world stakes, and the somber backdrop gives the story an emotional weight."—
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