In-between Days
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Seventeen-year-old Jacklin maneuvers her way through a summer of family drama and first—and second—loves in this gorgeous, lyrical novel from the author of Friday Never Leaving.
Jacklin Bates (a.k.a. “Jack”) believes the only way to soar beyond her life is to drop out of school and move in with her free-spirited sister, Trudy. But Jack quickly discovers her sister isn’t the same person she used to be. And when Jack loses her job and the boy she loves breaks her heart, she becomes desperate for distractions.
She strikes up an unlikely friendship with Pope, a lost soul camping in the forest behind her house. And then there’s Jeremiah, the boy next door with a kind, listening ear and plenty of troubles of his own. Together, over an endless summer, Jack and Jeremiah fix up the abandoned drive-in theater at the edge of town. But even as a fragile romance builds between them, Jack knows deep down that she can’t stay in limbo forever.
When Jack faces losing Jeremiah, she searches for a way to repair their relationship—beginning with the other broken pieces in her life. Only, sometimes the hardest part of starting over isn’t choosing a path…it’s figuring out how to take that first step forward.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Australian author Wakefield (Friday Never Leaving) sets this reflective novel in the desolate town of Mobius, where 17-year-old Jacklin "Jack" Bates has moved in with her older sister, Trudy. Mobius is about as depressed a town as it gets (Jack describes it as "a populated dead end, a wrong turn, a sleepy hollow"), and the story meanders among inhabitants who aren't sure what to do with themselves. When it comes to the malaise and stagnation of life in Mobius, Wakefield's writing is unflinchingly honest, though the story lacks tension. Jack does her job, loses said job, fights with Trudy, hooks up with a 21-year-old, learns to drive, has philosophical conversations with a drifter named Pope, struggles to reconcile with her estranged parents, and has other small adventures, but the events don't really coalesce to lend a driving force to the narrative. Even so, readers who let themselves sink into Wakefield's descriptions of small-town life, its constraints, and frustrations will enjoy following Jack as she searches for meaning, finding love and purpose in the unlikeliest people. Ages 14 up.
