Set in the late 1990s in a small New England town, this young adult novel is the coming-out story of Taylor Garland, the homecoming queen and life of the party, who is experiencing the uncertainties of her senior year in high school. At the center of a very small universe, she faces a prescribed future: She’s expected to stay in town, get married, and maybe become a dental hygienist. While she dates one of the most popular guys in school, she has feelings for her best friend, and wants nothing more than to leave her hometown and forge a future that’s very different from the one that others have in mind for her. Kirkus Reviews calls the book “an enjoyable debut” that explores the “coming-of-age lesbian aspect of the novel with humor and tenderness.”
Lindsay Sproul teaches creative writing at Loyola University-New Orleans, La.
