The Worst Perfect Moment
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- $4.99
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
Equal parts hilarious and heartbreaking, this inventive queer romance asks what it means to be truly happy.
Tegan Masters is dead.
She’s sixteen and she’s dead and she’s standing in the parking lot of the Marybelle Motor Lodge, the single most depressing motel in all of New Jersey and the place where Tegan spent what she remembers as the worst weekend of her life.
In the front office, she meets Zelda, an annoyingly cute teen angel with a snarky sense of humor and an epic set of wings. According to Zelda, Tegan is in heaven, where every person inhabits an exact replica of their happiest memory. For Tegan, Zelda insists, that place is the Marybelle—creepy minigolf course, sad breakfast buffet, filthy swimming pool, and all.
Tegan has a few complaints about this.
When Tegan takes these concerns up with Management, she and Zelda are sent on a whirlwind tour through Tegan’s memories, in search of clues to help her understand what mattered most to her in life. If Zelda fails to convince Tegan (and Management) that the Marybelle was the site of Tegan's perfect moment, both girls face dire eternal consequences. But if she succeeds…they just might get their happily-ever-afterlife.
A tender and edgy take on coming of age in the afterlife.
"Filled with depth and wit, despite its dark tone . . . exceptionally well written . . . A worthy read about a short life brimming with possibility." —Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review
"Plozza (Meet Me at the Moon Tree) strikes an expert balance between poignancy and irreverence, tackling topics such as death, parental abandonment, and self-worth in this queer romantic comedy that’s as tender as a bruise." —Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Sixteen-year-old Tegan Masters believes that a critical mistake has been made: she's dead and, instead of going to heaven, she arrives at the Marybelle Motor Lodge in Wildwood, N.J., the location of her worst memory. According to Zelda—the cute but snarky angel who has reengineered the lodge down to the last detail, including the slimy mushrooms and the hidden foosballs—this is the place of Tegan's happiest memory and where she will spend the rest of eternity. After Tegan files a complaint, the bureaucratic powers-that-be decree that Tegan and Zelda have one month to build their cases. Either Zelda must prove that her calculations were correct and Tegan is, in fact, where she belongs, or Tegan must persuade the powers that she's not in heaven, but hell. As the duo traverse Tegan's memories—depicted in third-person POV chapters—she confronts sweet and bitter recollections. Via Tegan's prickly yet endearing first-person narration, Plozza (Meet Me at the Moon Tree) strikes an expert balance between poignancy and irreverence, tackling topics such as death, parental abandonment, and self-worth in this queer romantic comedy that's as tender as a bruise. Tegan and Zelda cue as white. Ages 14–up.