Slingshot

Helnwein debuts in striking fashion... The writing especially the dialogue is magnetic honest and brimming with caustic wit... an enrapturing take on the intense highs and lows of teenage love. —Booklist Starred Review Wildly real and bursting with all the romance and pain of coming into oneself. —Kirkus Starred Review Helnwein frankly conveys the joy fear and awkwardness of an allconsuming first love poignantly depicting Gracie’s growth particularly the hardwon knowledge that she can exist just by the sheer force of herself and the grace she learns to show herself and others. —Publishers Weekly One of Eight 2021 YA Books To TBR ASAP —BookRiot Mercedes Helnweins Slingshot is an exciting debut contemporary young adult novel perfect for fans of Rainbow Rowell and Mary H. K. Choi I didn’t think it was going to be anything like this when I finally fell in love. I thought it was going to be pretty simple. Like I’d love someone and they’d love me. I thought that’s the way it worked.” Grace Welles is stuck at a thirdtier boarding school in the swamps of Florida where her method of survival is a strict selfimposed loneliness. And it works. Her crap attitude keeps people away because without friends there are fewer to lose. But when she accidentally saves the new kid Wade Scholfield from being beaten up everything about her precariously balanced loner world collapses and in order to find her footing again she has no choice but to discover a completely new way to exist. Because with Wade around school rules are optional weird is okay and conversations about wormholes can lead to makeout sessions that disrupt any logical stream of thought. Nothing’s perfect but that’s not the point. When theyre together everything seems uncomplicated in a way that Grace knows is not possible. Except it is. So why does Grace crush Wade’s heart into a million pieces Acidly funny and compulsive readable this debut is a story about two people finding each other and then screwing it all up. See also soulmate stupidity sex friendship bad poetry very bad decisions and all the indignities of being in love for the first time.