I've gotten some interest with agent queries but nothing that sticks, and would welcome the input of a beta reader on my novel and query letter.
Here's a brief synopsis:
The novel follows the journeys of three main characters. First is Oscar, whose high school standing has always been fragile at best. Now he’s dealing with the fallout of a fight that has everybody against him. He just wants to make it to graduation and put these years behind him. There’s one challenge left. Seven books in seven weeks to pull up his grades and get out of that place. But each book seems to set new events in motion, some that help Oscar understand himself and the world, some that threaten to undo him and those he loves.
Then there’s Mattie, who successfully navigated high school by keeping her head down, while also hiding a secret struggle, a disability that would redefine her if it came out. She just has to finish up with her anonymity in check and deliver one last speech for her Great Books class. But then Oscar crashes into her life, and her own readings seem to come alive too, poking at her secret and making her wonder if she might rewrite the last four years after all.
And don’t overlook “Dark” Mark, a shadow of a boy who watches from the sidelines, privileged in the things that don’t matter, starving in those that do. He, too, is ready to move on from the people he despises, and who despise him. But in the last few weeks, he absorbs a lifetime of wrongs, and his reading takes him to a dark place, with cries for justice and revenge. Mark takes steps to impose his darkness on all the others, and to make their stories his own.
If interested, let me know and I can email you the manuscript. Thanks for considering!
Here's a brief synopsis:
The novel follows the journeys of three main characters. First is Oscar, whose high school standing has always been fragile at best. Now he’s dealing with the fallout of a fight that has everybody against him. He just wants to make it to graduation and put these years behind him. There’s one challenge left. Seven books in seven weeks to pull up his grades and get out of that place. But each book seems to set new events in motion, some that help Oscar understand himself and the world, some that threaten to undo him and those he loves.
Then there’s Mattie, who successfully navigated high school by keeping her head down, while also hiding a secret struggle, a disability that would redefine her if it came out. She just has to finish up with her anonymity in check and deliver one last speech for her Great Books class. But then Oscar crashes into her life, and her own readings seem to come alive too, poking at her secret and making her wonder if she might rewrite the last four years after all.
And don’t overlook “Dark” Mark, a shadow of a boy who watches from the sidelines, privileged in the things that don’t matter, starving in those that do. He, too, is ready to move on from the people he despises, and who despise him. But in the last few weeks, he absorbs a lifetime of wrongs, and his reading takes him to a dark place, with cries for justice and revenge. Mark takes steps to impose his darkness on all the others, and to make their stories his own.
If interested, let me know and I can email you the manuscript. Thanks for considering!