Leaving the Beach
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4.0 • 4 Ratings
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- $4.99
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
"This is an outstanding novel... Erin is a perfectly flawed heroine." ~ Semifinalist, 2017 BookLife Prize (10 out of 10 in All 5 Categories Judged)
"Rowen's angsty, passionate debut explores the virtues and pratfalls of rock and roll fandom... Rowen's frank delivery will hold readers from start to finish." ~ Publishers Weekly
Erin Reardon gets her first kiss from Jim Morrison and loses her virginity to David Bowie. When she flunks out of college, Bruce Springsteen comforts her, and Elvis Costello breaks her heart in Europe. So what happens when she finally meets a rock star in the flesh?
Erin's a lonely misfit with an eating disorder and a wild imagination. She believes she was born to save—and love—at least one tortured musician, and is willing to risk almost everything to fulfill that destiny.
"...gracefully grapples with several important issues, including alcohol and drug addiction, loss, grief and sexuality... There are also many entertaining pop-culture references to offset the weighty themes... An intriguing novel that looks at the ways that people cope with the pain in their lives." ~ Kirkus Reviews
EVOLVED PUBLISHING PRESENTS a newly revised and edited second edition of a critically-acclaimed, award-winning literary/women's fiction piece sure to compel you to keep those pages turning. [DRM-Free]
AUTHOR'S CONTENT WARNING: Leaving the Beach is told in first person by an unreliable narrator named Erin Reardon. Erin is bulimic, she suffers from anxiety and depression, and she engages in dangerous behaviors. Other themes in the book include suicide and suicidality. If any of these topics might distress or trigger you, please read with caution or choose another book. And if you or anyone you know is struggling with eating issues or other mental health issues, help is always available. The National Eating Disorders Association is a great place to start.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Rowen's angsty, passionate debut explores the virtues and pratfalls of rock and roll fandom. In the late 1970s through early '80s, Winthrop, Mass., native Erin Rearden struggles with loneliness, bulimia, and heavy drinking during high school and college, and her love of music leads her to fixate on musicians, including Jim Morrison and David Bowie. Later, she is overtaken by grunge and a new crush, rock star Lenny Weir. The 27-year-old Erin accidentally meets Weir in the women's bathroom at a small club in Cambridge, where Weir is to play an unannounced show. Only after she sees him onstage does she realize that the "ragged," inebriated man who'd called her "Erin the beautiful" while they passed each other in the bathroom was Weir, and she believes they're fated to fall in love. Her fantasies about their would-be relationship are tempered after she starts dating a musician named Luke whose career seems lackluster compared to Weir's. Spare explanations of Erin's deeper issues, such as guilt over her alcoholic father's death, are overshadowed by frequent depictions of bulimia, but Erin's obsessions drive the action, from her thwarted effort to gain Elvis Costello's attention at a gig to rejecting Luke, leading to a bittersweet ending that reveals how she might have had it all wrong. Rowen's frank delivery will hold readers from start to finish. (Self-published)
