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“[An] entertaining novel-in-verse that will have readers clamoring for more. Sones, a beloved and wildly popular YA novelist, brings poetry to life for readers, especially parents of teens and those coping with elder care, in this cleverly versified, insightful laughter-and-tears novel.” |
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“Sones recounts the little ouches of aging with a perfect blend of wit and tenderness. This is what chick lit should want to be when it grows up—wise, funny, and blunt.” |
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“Separate verses spotlight individual moments of reckoning or recognition, freeing the author to skip the mundane connective tissue that a realistic prose novel requires. (Her poem titles also work harder than most: One about a dressing room is headlined “Chamber of Horrors.”) As the story progresses from Holly’s 50th birthday to her 51st, these vivid snapshots accumulate to form a fully dimensional portrait of a self-aware, generous-hearted woman who knows that her crises are entirely ordinary (a realization that makes them no less taxing) … Sones expertly juggles humor and pathos as Holly grapples with the challenging changes in her life” |
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“Holly is clearly on the brink of a middle-aged meltdown. She is also the clever, relatable protagonist of YA author Sonya Sones’ first novel for adults … The novel unfolds in lively free verse–a form well-suited to Sones’ insightful, meandering journey into her character’s psyche as she learns to confront the physical and spiritual challenges of aging without resorting to Botox or Spanx.” |
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“Every page of Sonya Sones’s novel-in-verse is brimming with wit, warmth and wisdom. You'll want to share this relatable and revelatory story about growing old ‘disgracefully’ with every mother and daughter you know.” |
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Megan McCafferty, author of the New York Times bestselling |
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Jessica Darling series and Bumped |
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“Funny, fresh, and heartbreakingly poignant, this book had me laughing and crying at the same time. Thank you, Sonya Sones, for finally saying what so many of us have been thinking for so long.” |
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Meg Cabot, author of The Princess Diaries series |
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and Insatiable |
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“Wallpaper a room with the pages of The Hunchback of Neiman Marcus. It will be your favorite place. The room you come back to again and again, year after year.” |
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Ilene Beckerman, author of Love, Loss and What I Wore |
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“If you told me I’d laugh and cry in the nail salon over a novel in VERSE about wifehood, mom-hood, and daughterhood I’d have said that you were … mad. And then I read The Hunchback of Neiman Marcus and I saw the light and the mirror and fell under Sonya Sones’ spell.” |
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Jacquelyn Mitchard, author of The Deep End of the Ocean |
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“An achingly honest, brilliantly crafted examination of midlife … An absolute joy to read.” |
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Tish Cohen, author of The Truth About Delilah Blue |
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and Inside Out Girl |
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“It’s funny, it’s honest, it reads like it’s a real life diary of someone you know. Maybe it’s you.” |
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Sarah's Organized Chaos |
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“Poignant and hilarious … moments of sparkly brilliance so bright, I had to actually set the book down for a moment.” |
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“At times it’s difficult to remember that this book is fiction—it reads like a poetic autobiography … It’s a light-hearted, endearing, humorous look at what can be a difficult time in a woman’s life. Sones is a master of unique and fresh similes and metaphors … I loved this book.” |
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Best Damn Creative Writing blog |
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“This truly was a wonderful book … I majored in English in college and pretty much loathed poetry, but I thoroughly enjoyed Sones’ writing. Even though I really couldn’t relate to Holly at first glance (she’s 50, her mother is ill, her husband may be cheating, and her daughter is off to college … While I’m 30, my mother is in fabulous health, and I have no husband or children), there was a lot about being a woman, in general, that I found to resonate with the deepest parts of me. Plus, I saw a bit of my own mom in Holly, and it made me wonder if she felt the same way Holly did when I went off to college. Broke my heart in places.” |
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“After ten pages, this reader was hooked … This poetic saga will touch you in places you didn’t remember existed. Prepare to be refreshed by this original exploration of women coping with aging and all its implications. Sones reminds us that we need to laugh at ourselves, love our children, and be grateful for our mothers.” |
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“Being, myself, a young newlywed with no kids makes the setting of this story something that I can’t easily relate to—and yet, the poems that fill this book are so exquisitely written and full of the just the right balance of information to progress the plot and emotional expression to pull me in, that I found myself incredibly sympathetic to Holly and fully enjoying her journey.” |
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