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We Are Okay meets They Both Die at the End in this YA debut about queer first love and mental health at the end of the world-and the importance of saving yourself, no matter what tomorrow may hold.
Avery Byrne has secrets. She's queer; she's in love with her best friend, Cass; and she's suffering from undiagnosed clinical depression. But on the morning Avery plans to jump into the river near her college campus, the world discovers there are only nine days left to live: an asteroid is headed for Earth, and no one can stop it.
Trying to spare her family and Cass additional pain, Avery does her best to make it through just nine more days. As time runs out and secrets slowly come to light, Avery would do anything to save the ones she loves. But most importantly, she learns to save herself. Speak her truth. Seek the support she needs. Find hope again in the tomorrows she has left.
If Tomorrow Doesn't Come is a celebration of queer love, a gripping speculative narrative, and an urgent, conversation-starting book about depression, mental health, and shame.
"Avery's complicated yet fierce relationship with Cass and the fraught energy between Avery and her parents are rendered in clear and emotive detail, yet most notable is St. Jude's heart-achingly precise interpretation of one teenager's experience with depression and suicidal ideation. Hope for a bright future is always evident in this sometimes dark, thought-provoking debut." ―Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"This courageous tale illuminates a young queer woman's quest out of self-loathing toward self-acceptance. It boldly asks: When the end is near, how do we live, and whom do we hold most dear? ... A textured book offering readers hope in the face of impossibility." ―Kirkus Reviews
"St. Jude examines the viciousness of depression and the inexplicable way it has of being exacerbated by everything and nothing... This story is raw, but unflinching, too, until the bitter end." —Booklist
"Any student who has struggled with intense depression or feelings of isolation while friends and family drift away will identify with Avery." —School Library Connection
"A worthy addition to a very narrow convergence of mental health crises that already exist at the verge of the end of the known world." —BCCB
"Jen St. Jude's end of the world story makes for one hell of a debut novel. It's lush, searching, and ultimately full of hope. I loved it." ―Emily M. Danforth, national bestselling and award-winning author of The Miseducation of Cameron Post
"If Tomorrow Doesn't Come is a novel that carves a space in your heart and remains there forever. Breathtakingly written, Jen St. Jude masterfully explores queerness, depression, and shame, while beautifully capturing family, friendship, and love, and the intersections that often exist between these things. Hopeful above all else." ―Rachael Lippincott, New York Times bestselling author of She Gets the Girl
"This book is devastatingly brilliant. Jen St. Jude is hands down one of the most talented new voices in YA, and soon, everyone will know it." ―Leah Johnson, bestselling author of You Should See Me in a Crown and Rise to the Sun
"If Tomorrow Doesn't Come is a brilliant story of hope, healing, and resilience from a thoughtful and fearless new voice in YA." ―Brandy Colbert, award-winning author of Little & Lion
"An electric, urgent miracle of a book that asks what--and who--we dare to live for. Avery's story will shatter your heart and fill it with light again. Keep an eye on this writer: St. Jude is here to stay." ―Kelly Quindlen, bestselling author of She Drives Me Crazy and Her Name in the Sky
This information about If Tomorrow Doesn't Come was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Lambda Literary Fellow Jen St. Jude (she/they) grew up in New Hampshire apple orchards and now lives in Chicago with her wife and dog. She holds degrees in creative writing from Colby College and Harvard University Extension School, and has served as an editor for Chicago Review of Books, Just Femme & Dandy, and Arcturus Magazine. When she's not reading or writing, you can find her cheering on the Chicago Sky and Red Stars. If Tomorrow Doesn't Come is her first novel.
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