The Worst Perfect Moment

Description

Equal parts tender and edgy, this inventive queer romance imagines what it might feel like to come of age in the afterlife.

Tegan Masters is dead.   

She’s sixteen and she’s dead and she’s standing in the parking lot of the Marybelle Motor Lodge, the single most depressing motel in all of New Jersey and the place where Tegan spent what she remembers as the worst weekend of her life.  

In the front office, she meets Zelda, a cute and sarcastic girl Tegan’s age who is, in fact, an angel (wings and all). According to Zelda, Tegan is officially in heaven, where every person inhabits an exact replica of their happiest memory. For Tegan, Zelda insists, that place is the Marybelle—creepy minigolf course, revolting breakfast buffet, broken TV, and all. 

Tegan has a few complaints about this. 

As Zelda takes Tegan on a whirlwind tour through Tegan’s past to help her understand what mattered most to her in life, the stakes couldn’t be higher. If Zelda fails to convince Tegan that the Marybelle was the site of Tegan’s perfect moment, both girls face eternal consequences too dire to consider. But if she succeeds…they just might get their happily-ever-afterlife. 

Full of humor and heartbreak, The Worst Perfect Moment asks what it means to be truly happy.★  ”A fresh take on a possible afterlife, this narrative is filled with depth and wit, despite its dark tone. Its realistic depiction of a girl’s reservoir of coping mechanisms for dealing with those who have let her down is exceptionally well written. . . A worthy read about a short life brimming with possibility.”—Kirkus Reviews, Starred ReviewShivaun Plozza’s critically acclaimed debut novel, Frankie (Flatiron Books), was nominated to ALA’s Best Fiction for Young Adults List, was a CBCA Notable Book, and won a number of awards, including the Davitt Awards, a commendation from the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award, and a shortlisting for the Inky Awards. Her second novel, Tin Heart, was nominated to ALA’s Best Fiction for Young Adults List and received starred reviews from Kirkus and Publishers Weekly. Bestselling author Jennifer Niven called Tin Heart “from cover to cover swoon-worthy, moving, deep, and funny.” Shivaun’s MG debut, The Boy, the Wolf, and the Stars (HMH Books for Young Readers), was a JLG selection. When she’s not writing, Shivaun works as an editor. She lives in Victoria, Australia with her cat.US

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