AN Off Year
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
“Zulkey’s smart, keenly observed, and witty first novel should be read by everyone who’s ever felt paralyzed thinking about the future.”—John Green, New York Times bestselling author of The Fault in Our Stars
“Original and distinctive, yet has satisfying echoes of seminal coming-of-age classics.”—Nathan Rabin, American film critic and author of The Big Rewind
After a lifetime of following the rules, Cecily Powell surprises everyone by arriving for her freshman year of college . . . and turning around. There are infinite possibilities for Cecily’s unexpected gap year. She could volunteer or travel around the world—but for now, Cecily is content to do absolutely nothing.
What follows is a year of self-doubt and self-discovery during which Cecily must ask herself for the first time: what does she really want to do with the rest of her life?
With humor and authenticity, Claire Zulkey perfectly captures the tension, heartbreak, and quirky irony of a wholly unexpected gap year.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Teens who get butterflies in their stomachs just thinking about starting college will relate to Cecily, who, upon her arrival at her Kenyon College dorm, decides campus life is not for her (" You know, actually, I think I'm just going to go back home with you,' I told my dad, who was still trying to decipher the campus map"). What follows is her "off" year, a time she would rather spend watching TV than trading barbs with her boomerang-daughter older sister, and getting tossed into therapy by her professor father. In a candid first novel filled with funny-smart, true-to-life observations and dialogue between Cecily and her family members, Zulkey traces Cecily's coming to terms with her fears as she watches old friends move forward and regrets being left behind. Rather than giving pat solutions or clear causes for the protagonist's reluctance to begin a new life, the book remains focused on her maturing process. If her anxieties aren't completely quelled by the story's end, readers will sense that Cecily's second attempt to leave the nest will go more smoothly. Ages 14 up.
