The first book from Julie Murphy, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Dumplin'—now a feature film starring Danielle Macdonald and Jennifer Aniston, with a soundtrack by Dolly Parton!
For fans of John Green and Rainbow Rowell comes this powerful novel about a girl with cancer who creates a take-no-prisoners bucket list that sets off a war at school—only to discover she's gone into remission.
When sixteen-year-old Alice is diagnosed with leukemia, she vows to spend her final months righting wrongs. So she convinces her best friend, Harvey, to help her with a crazy bucket list that's as much about revenge as it is about hope.
But just when Alice's scores are settled, she goes into remission, and now she must face the consequences of all she's said and done.
Contemporary realistic fiction readers who love romantic stories featuring strong heroines will find much to savor in this standout debut.
Julie Murphy lives in North Texas with her husband, who loves her, and her cats, who tolerate her. When Julie isn’t writing, she can be found watching movies so bad they're good, hunting for the perfect slice of cheese pizza, or planning her next great travel adventure. She is the author of the middle grade novels Dear Sweet Pea and Camp Sylvania as well as the young adult novels Ramona Blue, Side Effects May Vary, the Faith series, Pumpkin,Puddin’, and Dumplin’ (now a Netflix original film). You can visit Julie at imjuliemurphy.com.
Ballet is notoriously elegant, beautiful, and deceptively delicate, but those with more intimate knowledge of the dance know that inside those pristine pointe shoes lie blisters and blood. The best insider looks at ballet exemplify the way training and performance push the dancers to their limits, working them as hard as any athletes while demanding […]
For as long as the YA genre has existed, there has been the accompanying anxiety over how dark is too dark? Depictions of murder, suicide, and other dark consequences have rattled educators and parents. But as author Maureen Johnson pointed out in a 2011 editorial, “If subjects like these are in YA books, it’s to show that they […]
This week’s new releases are full of inspiration: from Sherlock Holmes to Snow White, Romeo & Juliet to Cinderella, and in a class by herself, Miss Dolly Parton. We’ve got magical realism, horror, a gender-swapped Moriarty, and new books by the authors of old favorites like Conversion, Side Effects May Vary, and This Song Will Save Your Life. Here are […]
If you’ve been living in a decidedly unglamorous cave, you may have missed the massive buzz surrounding Julie Murphy’s sophomore novel, Dumplin’, which features a heroine named Willowdean who’s confident, fun, fat, a raging Dolly Parton fan, and entering a beauty pageant in her obsessed hometown. Willowdean is the kind of character we rarely get to see […]
You have a choice this Sunday: binge-watch season 3 of Gilmore Girls while working your way through the trick or treaters’ candy you purposely bought too early…or join the National Novel Writing Month movement and start writing that novel. YOU know the one. Maybe it’s been kicking around your brain for ages even though you’ve never written a word […]
