Hi, friends! Cover Reveal Week on Pop! Goes The Reader continues today as I have the immense pleasure of welcoming my friend, Meg Leder, to the blog in order to reveal the cover of her sophomore young adult novel, Letting Go Of Gravity! I was fortunate enough to read Meg’s debut, The Museum Of Heartbreak, last year and I fell in love with the subtle, insightful, heartfelt story I discovered within its pages. I’ve been looking forward to Meg’s next book ever since and I’m so honoured I’ve been given the opportunity to share a little about it with you today! Coming to a bookstore and library near you July 17th 2018 by Simon Pulse, Letting Go Of Gravity tells the story of twins Parker and Charlie, two individuals whose lives are paradoxically as intertwined, and as different, as two people’s can be. The cover of Letting Go Of Gravity was designed by Russell Gordon and Maggie Edkins. Please read on to learn more about Meg Leder’s forthcoming young adult contemporary novel, including the exclusive cover reveal, complete synopsis, a special note from the author about the novel’s origins and inspiration, and a chance to win a signed, advance reader copy of Letting Go Of Gravity!
I grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio. Staying in the same place for most of your life has its benefits – I knew my hometown like the back of my hand, I was close to my family, and I had a wonderful group of friends I’d cultivated through the years. The downside, however, is that it’s very hard to let yourself be someone else when you’ve lived in the same place your whole life.
Like my main character Parker, I was always an overachiever: a straight-A student and class valedictorian who got a full scholarship to my university. I expected my time at college to follow suit: everything according to plan. But when I got there, I went through a major bout of depression. Despite having a wonderful roommate, I was lonely, homesick, and filled with a constant sense of dread at having to be in a place that just felt wrong. I felt wrong.
Ten miserable weeks later, I made the decision to drop out, give up my scholarship, and move home. At the time, I felt like a complete failure. I wasn’t always the bright, shining valedictorian everyone thought I was. I wasn’t the person I thought I was.
Now, years later, I can see dropping out was absolutely the best thing for me to do. Not only did it eventually lead me to a school that was a better emotional match, it was the first time I made a decision that was mine and mine alone. It can be really hard to forge an unexpected path, to be someone different than everyone around you expects you to be, but it’s also really brave, and making those decisions – the ones that are true to you – can be one of the first steps in really growing up and becoming a person of your own.
In Letting Go of Gravity, I wanted to look at the ways we let the world define us, and how that can hold us back. And I wanted to explore what happens when you let go of all of that – when you release all your notions about the person you think you are, and start to let yourself wonder about the person you really want to be.
About Meg Leder
A former bookseller and teacher, Meg Leder currently works as a book editor in New York City. She is the author of The Museum of Heartbreak, the co-author of The Happy Book, and spends her free time reading, looking for street art, and people watching. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Title Letting Go of Gravity
Author Meg Leder
Pages 288 Pages
Intended Target Audience Young Adult
To Be Published July 17th 2018 by Simon Pulse
Find It On Goodreads ● Amazon.com
Twins Parker and Charlie are polar opposites.
Where Charlie is fearless, Parker is careful.
Charlie is confident while Parker aims to please.
Charlie is outgoing and outspoken; Parker is introverted and reserved.
And of course, there’s the one other major difference: Charlie got leukemia. Parker didn’t.
But now that Charlie is officially in remission, life couldn’t be going better for Parker. She’s landed a prestigious summer internship at the hospital and is headed to Harvard in the fall to study pediatric oncology — which is why the panic she’s felt since her Harvard acceptance is so unsettling. And it doesn’t help that her relationship with Charlie has been on the rocks since his diagnosis.
Enter Finn, a boy who’s been leaving strange graffiti messages all over town. Parker can’t stop thinking about those messages, or about Finn, who makes her feel free for the first time: free to doubt, free to make mistakes, and free to confront the truth that Parker has been hiding from for a long time.
That she keeps trying to save Charlie, when the person who really needs saving is herself.
As an extra, exciting bonus, Meg has been kind enough to offer one lucky reader the opportunity to win a signed, advance reader copy of Letting Go Of Gravity! This contest is open to residents of the U.S. and Canada and the prize will be distributed once ARCs become available. Please fill out the Rafflecopter form below to enter!
3 Responses
Absolutely beautiful!
Ohhh that’s gorgeous!
I loved MUSEUM OF HEARTBREAK and cannot wait to read this book.
Sam@WLABB recently posted…Tell Me Something Tuesday: Vampire or Werewolf?