Come As You Are: A Novel

by Jennifer Haupt

Overview

Come as You Are is a compelling love story and family drama that addresses the question: Can we alter our dreams and stories from the past to create a better future for our children?

Zane and Skye are two misfit teens drawn together by their love of music and their loneliness, both part of Seattle's grunge scene in the early '90s. They dream of moving to L.A. together: Zane's music career following the trajectory of Kurt Cobain and Eddie Vedder, and Skye drawing Picasso-esque portraits on the Venice Beach boardwalk. When a tragedy violently catapults them from best friends to lovers, their bond is forever strengthened and their relationship destroyed. Ten years later, they must come together as parents, putting aside abandoned dreams and broken promises. The question is: can they face the truth of who they are, and become the parents their daughter needs them to be?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781771682268
Publisher:	Central Avenue Publishing
Publication date:	03/01/2022
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	902,833
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Jennifer Haupt is the author of the highly acclaimed novel In the Shadow of 10,000 Hills (2018), Come As You Are (2022) and editor of the groundbreaking anthology Alone Together: Love, Grief, and Comfort in the Time of COVID-19 (2020), which has raised more than $40,000 for the Book Industry Charitable Foundation.

Haupt's essays and articles have been published in O, The Oprah Magazine; The Rumpus; Psychology Today; Travel & Leisure; The Seattle Times; Spirituality & Health; The Sun; and many other publications. Her popular Psychology Today blog, One True Thing, is a collection of essays and interviews for readers and writers.

Haupt's favorite pastimes are fine-tuning Spotify playlists, walking in the woods with her double doodle, and playing board games with her husband of 25+ years and two grown sons.

Editorial Reviews

"The 1990s-set flashbacks capture the carefree spirit of the era and are full of references to iconic bands and venues, contrasting effectively with adult Skye’s complex entanglements with both Aaron and Zane, and her desire to give Montana a better life. Readers of character-driven relationship fiction will be drawn into Skye’s story." – Booklist

"In Jennifer Haupt’s keen-edged, intimate novel Come As You Are, an intense, imperfect bond yields to more expansive resilience." – Foreword Reviews

A Katie Couric Must-Read of 2022
 

"Offering complicated, flawed, yet deeply sympathetic characters, Haupt asks what it means to atone, to survive grief both alone and together, to stand on one's own feet as a woman who has been hurt or as a man who has done harm."
 – Gina Frangello, bestselling author of A Life in Men and Every Kind of Wanting
 

"A tender novel of messy relationships linked by love and tragedy. From the smoky bars of 1990's Seattle to the beautiful vistas of New Mexico ten years later, Haupt skillfully weaves together threads of regret and forgiveness into a warm-hearted tale of moving forward."
 –Luisa Smith, Buying Director, Book Passages, San Francisco, CA
 

"A poignant and memorable story of a single mother struggling to transcend a past of abandonment, secrets, and false dreams."
 – Anna Quinn, Bestselling author of The Night Child
 

"Come As You Are reminds us that we all can get lost on the path to becoming good humans, even as it teaches us that better is possible."
– Erica Bauermeister, author of The Scent Keeper
 

“Heartfelt and insightful, Come as You Are is a delightful read. Haupt’s complex characters come to life on the page. Poignant and uplifting.” — Jean Kwok, NYT Bestseller author of Searching for Sylvie Lee, a Read with Jenna Today Show Book Club Pick

"Haupt’s incandescent new novel centers on characters all desperate to find their best selves, each so rich and indelible, you’ll feel you grew up with them. Complex and unforgettable."
– Caroline Leavitt, NYT Bestselling author of Cruel Beautiful World and With or Without You

From the Publisher

Jennifer Haupt, in her prior novel, In the Shadow of 10,000 Hills, effortlessly blended the American Civil Rights Movement with the 1994 Rwandian genocide. In her newest novel, Come as You Are, she just as easily dovetails the West Coast "Seattle Grunge" music scene with the New Mexican Native American milieu. Zane and Skye are teenaged best friends/lovers who plan to move to LA, Zane planning to hit it big in music while Skye works on her art. Things go screwy when her sister, Lauren, dies and, shortly thereafter, Skye discovers she's pregnant. To escape the tensions at home, she bails out and heads to Montana. He soon follows her but becomes too messed up by drugs to be a good partner for Skye or father to their daughter, the eponymously-named Montana. Eventually, Skye moves to New Mexico. She is too damaged by her past to recognize the potential of the second family she forms with Aaron and his mother, Enola.
 
Come as You Are is a haunting novel about trauma, love, healing, forming new connections and new families while learning to deal with the old. It's also about how traumas spiral around, revisiting families in new ways. The music references are spot-on. The emotions portrayed are grim, haunting, and ultimately uplifting.

Suanne Schafer

"Heartfelt and insightful, Come as You Are is a delightful read. Haupt’s complex characters come to life on the page. Poignant and uplifting.

NYT Bestseller author of Searching for Sylvie Lee, a Read with Jenna Today Show Book Club Pick - Jean Kwok

In Jennifer Haupt’s keen-edged, intimate novel Come As You Are, an intense, imperfect bond yields to more expansive resilience.

Skye and Zane first meet in 1987. Growing up in 1990s Seattle, they watch their offbeat city become an indie culture mecca, with grunge hyped into chic fashion and record label scouts prowling the clubs, looking for the next Pearl Jam or Nirvana.

Skye and Zane plan to go to Los Angeles, where Zane can become a rock star, and artistic Skye can sketch “Picassoesque portraits.” But then Skye’s sister dies, and Skye and Zane’s friendship deepens. After Skye’s unexpected pregnancy, the responsibilities of parenting overwhelm Zane, and he abandons Skye and their daughter.

Skye’s emotional vulnerability alternates with her need for independence. After Zane leaves, she moves to Albuquerque, where she raises their daughter, Montana, and works at a local casino. She also becomes engaged to Aaron, another casino employee and an aspiring environmental lawyer. When Zane insists on seeing Montana again, Skye feels pulled from her more purposeful future with Aaron, and back toward her bittersweet history with her first love.

Skye’s relationship with Zane is developed with compelling complexity. Beyond the heady allure of their shared experiences, there are darker recollections of Zane’s selfish behavior. As the narrative shifts, Zane’s troubled perspective is also included: he tries to overcome his addictions and make  mends for the past.

Seattle is at the center of Come As You Are, with vibrant memories of mosh pits, flannel shirts, and “loud-and-proud misfits” sharing “a world where nothing mattered but the music.” But the novel’s lovely descriptions of New Mexico’s cloudless skies and sagebrush are freer. There, Skye can allow Zane to be part of her life, while still finding her own well-earned peace.

Foreword Reviews - Meg Nola

Teenage Zane O’Rourke is new to Seattle when he meets Skylar Albright, his younger next-door neighbor. Despite the age difference, they forge a close friendship through their shared interest in music, until a tragic accident involving Skye’s older sister changes everything. Although they try to make things work, Zane struggles with addiction, and he abandons Skye and their daughter. A decade later, Skye has built a happy life in Albuquerque with her kindhearted fiancé Aaron and nine-year-old Montana when she gets the news that her estranged father has died. She returns to Seattle, where Zane has kicked his addiction and wants to be a father to Montana. 

Haupt (In the Shadow of 10,000 Hills, 2018) explores Skye’s inner life, showing how her youthful connection to Zane shaped the woman she became. The 1990s-set flashbacks capture the carefree spirit of the era and are full of references to iconic bands and venues, contrasting effectively with adult Skye’s complex entanglements with both Aaron and Zane, and her desire to give Montana a better life. Readers of character-driven relationship fiction will be drawn into Skye’s story.

Booklist - Nanette Donohue

A Katie Couric 2022 Must Read

https://katiecouric.com/culture/book-guide/must-read-new-books/

Katie Couric - katiecouric.com