Showing results by narrator "Jeremy Carlisle-Parker" in All Categories

Writing from an impressive range of perspectives—men and women, children and adults, immigrants and tourists—Puchner deftly exposes the dark, tender undersides of his characters with arresting beauty and precision. Here are people fumbling for identity in a dehumanizing world, captured in moments that are hilarious, shocking, and transcendent, sometimes all at once. Unfailingly true, surprisingly moving, and impossible to forget, these stories make up an extraordinary and strikingly original collection.

Tru has been hiding all her life. Her parents taught her to conceal her bastion Talent: indestructible skin, muscles, and bones. In a world where Talents are common and varied, no one trusts a bastion—they’re too powerful. Hiding failed to keep Tru’s parents alive, but moments before their murder, Tru’s mom pointed her to Logan Dire, a famed recluse assassin who adopted and trained orphaned Tru. At seventeen, she’s still hiding. Not even her closest friends know her true name or Talent, or that she’s balancing high school with knife and stealth training.

Victor and Zoey are getting old, well old-er, and it’s beginning to be a real problem. Best friends for a decade, they have seen each other through bad dates and office drama, late nights and hungover brunches, during their years together in New York City. As their wild twenties come to a close, though, the dynamic between the two is shifting. Coming off a tough breakup, Victor dedicates his energies toward building a career writing celebrity profiles for one of the last glossy magazines left, while Zoey navigates the terrain at her nascent fashion startup.

Only weeks remain before the election that will decide the fate of supernaturals in Estero, with presidential challenger Magdalia Palacio in the lead. Desperate to maintain his grip on power, corrupt President Fuerte has leaked photos of the forgotten five to the press, making the kids public enemy number one. And now the location of their safe house has been discovered, and the five and their friends are on the run.

While her parents are away for the week, sixteen-year-old Ivy McIntosh plans on binge-watching her favourite TV show and hanging out with her best friend, Henry. But things quickly go downhill on the very first morning, when Ivy wakes up to find Weston, the gorgeous lead character of her favourite show, in her bedroom. And, oh yeah, he thinks that she's his soulmate. Ivy realizes that her writing has somehow brought Weston as she's imagined him to life, and now he's living out her fanfiction dreams. But those fairytale dreams soon turn into disasters.

The entire country rejoiced when, out of a golden egg, Roxana Goldenscales hatched. It’s not every day (or even every decade) that a dragona princess graces the earth with her presence. But like most rare, valuable, and defenseless things, every moment of Roxana’s existence is supervised, planned, and observed. Or at least, they were. Until she ran away.

The year is 2023, and things are bad—bad, but still not as bad as they could be. Hestia Harris is forty-two, abandoned by her husband (he left to fight for the Union cause), and estranged from her parents (they’re leaving for the Confederacy). Yes, the United States has collapsed into a second civil war and again it’s Unionists against Confederates, children against parents, friends against friends.

After running away from home, Sybil Clarion is eager to embrace all the freedom the Belle Époque city of Severon has to offer. Instead, she’s traded high-society soirées for empty pockets. At least she has Esme, the girl who offered Sybil a home, and if either of them dared, something more.

The Forgotten Five and their friends are reeling in the aftermath of the raid on Magdalia Palacio's campaign rally—an attack masterminded by her corrupt opponent President Fuerte and his henchmen. Birdie is in the hospital with a head injury, and under arrest for stealing a police horse in her attempt to evade capture. Separated from her friends—and not even allowed to see her mother—how can Birdie escape when she is utterly alone?

The games and rituals performed by Katherine Heiny’s characters range from mischievous to tender. In ‘Bridesmaid, Revisited,’ Marilee, suffering from a laundry and life crisis, wears a massive bridesmaid’s dress to work. In ‘Twist and Shout,’ Ericka’s elderly father mistakes his four-thousand-dollar hearing aid for a cashew and eats it. In ‘Turn Back, Turn Back,’ a bedtime storxy coupled with a receipt for a Starbucks babyccino reveal a struggling actor’s deception. And in ‘561,’ Charlene pays the true price of infidelity and is forced to help her husband’s ex-wife move out of the family home.

At Sunny Pines Retirement Community, where the “Sixty-Two and Better!” share their golden years, secrets abound. Some scandalous, some haunting, and some dangerous. For Birdie Allen, a retired business owner and grandmother, her secret is the only thing she’s got left. Getting old isn’t the hardest part about life. It’s the memories from more than fifty years ago of the death of her unrequited love. And Birdie’s abandoned quest to root out the killer.

Her father is a Musik, one of only five musicians in the country licensed to compose and perform original songs. In the kingdom of Aell, where winter is endless and magic is accessible to all, there are strict anti-magic laws ensuring music remains the last untouched art.

With a human mother and a werewolf father, Xander Binnigas has never fit anywhere. His father wasn't keen on being saddled with a clueless cub. His mother hated when he drank out of the toilet bowl and marked mailboxes on their Sunday strolls. Even so, he survived to adulthood, his one desire never wavering. And like a wolf with a bone, Xander still longs to find a place to belong. But after years of working like a dog in hopes of officially joining the Manhattan pack, he realizes that he’s been barking up the wrong skyscraper.

In this queer, contemporary, and neurodiverse spin on Romeo and Juliet from Stonewall Award Honor author Taylor Tracy, two New York City girls from warring restaurateur families befriend each other during the busiest week for their respective Italian eateries: the Feast of San Gennaro.

When Diane Cockerton disappeared in the summer of '05, she escaped the grips of a terror which had haunted her from childhood. She also left behind everything and everyone she's ever loved. Now, six years later, she finds herself drawn into a game with no rules and no guarantees—and no one left to trust.

Minerva Lucent has always wanted to be just like her late father: a guardian, defender of NYC from the demonic threat. She’s spent her whole life trying to secure a spot, but so far, she’s still stuck as a magical beat cop. It’s not that she hates cleaning up after the boozy vampires and miscreant werewolves. It’s just not inspiring. But when the guardian she’s crushed on for years spills about a rare opening on their force, she resolves to do anything she can to snag it for herself. If that means she has to rally her friends and do something a little crazy, well.

Tourists arrive all summer, by boat or seaplane, at Stu and Maureen Jenkins's Lavender Island Wilderness Lodge in the Kodiak Archipelago, expecting adventure. But the spontaneity of their authentic Alaskan wilderness experience is meticulously scripted, except when real danger rears its head. Stu and Maureen's lodge is failing, as is their marriage. Mira has been hired for the season as the lodge's baker and housekeeper.

There’s something magical about Yarrow, Kentucky. The three empathic witches of the Haywood family are known for their shadow garden—from strawberries that taste like chocolate to cherry tomatoes imbued with the flavors of basil and oregano. Their magic can cure any heartache, and the fruits of their garden bring a special quality to the local bourbon distillery. On one day every year, a shot of Bonner bourbon will make your worst memory disappear. But the Haywoods will never forget the Bonners’ bitter betrayal.

Three years after running away from home, Olivia is stuck with a dead-end job in nowhere town Chapel Hill, Pennsylvania. At least she has her best friend, Sunflower. Olivia figures she’ll die in Chapel Hill, if not from boredom, then the summer night storm which crashes into town with a mind-bending monster in tow. If Olivia’s going to escape Chapel Hill and someday reconcile with her parents, she’ll need to dodge residents enslaved by the storm’s otherworldly powers and find Sunflower.

After years racing go-karts and looking up to her mother, a celebrity Formula 1 racer, Jojo Emerson-Boyd should be starting her own racing career. But when she loses her mom in a tragic crash, Jojo’s future comes to a screeching halt. Now her dad won’t let her get a license, much less race. Instead, she’s stuck working at her grandmother’s mechanic shop in the sleepy small town of Dell’s Hollow. But Jojo’s heart quickens when Motorcyle Girl Eliana “El” Blum shows up at the shop. El grew up on the motocross circuit sidelines, watching her sister and idol Maxine compete.