A sublimely fresh and moving exploration of how it feels to be teetering on that giddy precipice between childhood and adulthood.
Marcie is on the verge of everything changing. About to leave school and head to university, she feels lost, left in limbo. She’s struggling with family, she has yet to discover her own dreams and she simply doesn’t know what she wants. Cue the re-entry of her childhood imaginary best friend, Thor, a boy with bear arms whom Marcie cast from her life some years ago. Through their alternating narratives, we learn that both Marcie and Thor are heading towards a time of epic transformation, and together they navigate these terrifying tides of change.
Spiced with pithy life lessons - ”A rollercoaster’s only fun because you know you’re getting off at some point” - this really is an unusually ingenious novel. The wildly off-the-wall set-up casts a soulful spell that becomes more potent when readers take time to take-in every single word. A rare gem.
Marcie is real. With real problems. For years she has been hitching a ride on the train of her best friend Cara's life. Now there's only one more summer until they're off to uni together. Just like they planned. But Marcie has a secret, and time is running out for her to decide what she really wants. Years ago, Thor was also Marcie's friend before she cast him out, back to his own world. Time is running out for him too. If he doesn't make a decision soon, he's going to face the fade. But Thor is not real. And that's a real problem . . .
Steven Camden is a leading spoken-word poet, performing as Polarbear. He also writes radio plays, teaches storytelling in schools, and was a lead artist for The Ministry of Stories. Tape is his first novel. When you read it, you will find this hard to believe. Everything All At Once is a collection of original poems for teenagers and is his first collection for Macmillan Children's Books.
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