Promise Me Something

by Sara Kocek

Overview

As if starting high school weren't bad enough, Reyna Fey has to do so at a new school without her best friends. Reyna's plan is to keep her head down, help her father recover from the car accident that almost took his life, and maybe even make some friends. And then Olive Barton notices her. Olive is not exactly the kind of new friend Reyna has in mind. The boys make fun of her, the girls want to fight her, and Olive seems to welcome the challenge. There's something about Olive that Reyna can't help but like. But when Reyna learns Olive's secret, she must decide whether it's better to be good friends with an outcast or fake friends with the popular kids. . . .before she loses Olive forever.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807566428
Publisher:	Whitman, Albert & Company
Publication date:	05/01/2015
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	13 - 18 Years

About the Author

Sara Kocek received her BA in English from Yale University and her MFA in Creative Writing from New York University, where she taught fiction and poetry to undergraduates. A freelance editor and college essay coach, Sara has served as the Program Director at the Writers' League of Texas, a literary nonprofit. She lives in Austin, Texas, and enjoys "Keeping Austin Weird" with her husband and daughter. This is her first book.

Table of Contents

September,
October,
November,
December,
January,
February,
Saturday,
Sunday,
Monday,
Tuesday,
Wednesday,
Thursday,
Friday, 5:01 a.m.,
Friday, 5:22 a.m.,
Friday, 11:15 a.m.,
Friday, 3:06 p.m.,
Acknowledgments,

Editorial Reviews

When Reyna Fey’s house is redistricted, it means she’ll be starting high school at Belltown High, while all her friends will attend nearby Ridgeway. Seven years earlier, Reyna’s mother was killed by a drunk driver, and a recent car accident nearly did the same to her father, so Reyna is angry and scared when blunt, bossy, and painfully unpopular Olive Barton bounds into her life. “You’re the only person in this school who needs a friend as much as me,” Olive tells Reina, who can’t exactly disagree. They begin a tentative friendship, but Olive doesn’t fit in with Reyna’s increasingly distant friends from middle school, and when Olive shares a deeply held secret about herself, Reyna’s reaction, born in part out of her own conservative upbringing, has potentially devastating consequences. Kocek’s hard-hitting first novel offers smart dialogue, sharp descriptions, and a plot that unfolds in unexpected ways, as she explores the destructive power of casual, everyday homophobia, especially in a claustrophobic high school environment where adults and students are content to look the other way. Ages 13–up. Agent: Logan Garrison, Gernert Company. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

"Kocek's hard-hitting first novel offers smart dialogue, sharp descriptions, and a plot that unfolds in unexpected ways, as she explores the destructive power of casual, everyday homophobia."—Publishers Weekly

STARRED REVIEW! "High school as crucible of character is a mainstay of teen fiction, but seldom have its dilemmas and dramas been so precisely re-created in all their brutal, claustrophobic intensity as in this debut: part morality play, part suspense tale. Compelling, honest storytelling."—Kirkus Reviews starred review

"The heavy themes are explored as gently as possible without glossing over uncomfortable situations. All of these elements, including a plot twist, make this book a better-than-average problem novel."—School Library Journal

"Promise Me Something tackles weighty issues of harassment, family dysfunction, suicide, and homophobia within the context of adolescent identity and friendship, while maintaining the focus of the story on characters whose complexity feels real and whose lives may be our own, our next door neighbor's, or our best friend's."—VOYA

"The topics of bullying and LGBT teens are well chosen and provide realistic insights into discrimination of gay teens."—Booklist

From the Publisher

10/01/2013
Gr 9 Up—Rude, pushy Olive chooses Reyna Fey as a friend, and Reyna, a new freshman separated from her middle-school friends, reluctantly accepts her friendship. In addition to adapting to a different school, Reyna is coping with her mother's death and her father's remarriage. Perhaps, it is her sadness that attracts complex Olive. Reyna also makes friends with a boy named, Levi. One night during a sleepover, Olive reveals that she is a lesbian. Reyna's association with her goes into a tailspin and she eventually befriends the popular girls in school, who torment Olive and other outcasts. Events unfold that challenge everything Reyna, a devote Catholic, believes in. With themes of homosexuality, teen suicide, and death, the book invites readers to ask themselves some difficult questions. The heavy themes are explored as gently as possible without glossing over uncomfortable situations. All of these elements, including a plot twist, make this book a better-than-average problem novel.—Mindy Whipple, West Jordan Library, UT

School Library Journal

★ 2013-08-15
High school as crucible of character is a mainstay of teen fiction, but seldom have its dilemmas and dramas been so precisely re-created in all their brutal, claustrophobic intensity as in this debut: part morality play, part suspense tale. Reyna Fey begins freshman year under a cloud. Her friends attend the town's other high school. She still bears scars from the death of her mother, killed by a drunk driver; her father's girlfriend, Lucy, crashed his car, injuring him, yet they're closer than ever. When a smart, odd and prickly classmate befriends her, Reyna is conflicted. Olive's a social pariah, but her frankness and honesty attract shy Reyna, who keeps her own resentments under wraps, muffled by a conventional Roman Catholic upbringing. Observing a homophobic history teacher and discovering that Levi, the boy she's drawn to, has two mothers challenge Reyna's worldview but fail to dislodge her assumptions or overcome her longing to be included in the social wolf pack. Watching Reyna repeatedly abandon her better self to chase the ephemera of "normalcy" is gripping and agonizing. Olive--manipulative and rude--is no angel, but in high school's deceptive hall of mirrors, her honesty is as valuable as it is rare. Compelling, honest storytelling. (Fiction. 13 & up)

Kirkus Reviews