Andrew Smith (Winger; Grasshopper Jungle) pens a phenomenal novel about life's many detours, told in the unforgettable voice of an epileptic teenager with heterochromatic eyes (one blue, one green) and a strange history.
When 16-year-old Finn Easton was seven, a dead horse being transported to a rendering plant fell "one hundred sideways miles" off a bridge and landed on Finn and his mother. The impact broke Finn's back and killed his mother. His epilepsy, which he may grow out of, is a "souvenir" of the accident, and if he does grow out of it, he suspects he may miss the way the seizures empty the words out of his head. Finn measures the world in miles instead of minutes, because he believes "distance is more important than time." His crush, Julia Bishop, just moved from Chicago to Finn's Southern California town. Julia loves Finn back, which makes it devastating for Finn when Julia must return to Chicago--the scene of a tragedy that makes Finn wish he "could push the world back all those miles with my bare hands and make it change direction," even if it means they'd never have met.
Finn questions whether or not he's the product of his father's bestselling cult-classic novel, in which the protagonist bears a striking resemblance to Finn. So he sets out on a road trip with his best friend to figure out the ending to his story. Hilarious and wise, this is an addictive and panoramic read about the intersecting--and divergent--paths that lie ahead. Breathtakingly good. --Adam Silvera, children's bookseller