Synopsis "Dive: A Novel"
When V's life crumbles around her, she has two options: let it take her down with it or dive straight in Virginia "V" Dunn is alone when her dog is hit by a car. Lucky's back leg is shattered, and when she comforts him, his blood is wet on her hands. Suddenly, the monotony of V's suburban life dissolves: Lucky is in a cast; her best friend, Eileen, is avoiding her; her mother's drinking is getting worse; and her father is sick with a mysterious illness. Although V is surrounded by family, she is the loneliest girl in town. As V begins to question everything-death, friendship, family, betrayal-she finds there are few easy answers. The people she thought she knew are strangers, and life's meaning eludes her. Into this mystery walks the captivating Jane, and V soon realizes that the only way forward seems to break every rule, and go beyond all limitations. "V for Victory!" -The Advocate "Poetic . . . [Donovan's] frank approach to lesbian love and fatal illness packs a hard punch that will leave readers breathless." -Publishers Weekly "A masterfully descriptive psychological novel . . . Full of clarity and a strange beauty. This is a novel that is sure to provoke much thought and debate." -School Library Journal "[Donovan] has created a work of richly crafted prose that faithfully portrays the voice of adolescence. . . . [Her] characters have an affair, and like everything else in the book, it is depicted poetically." -The New York Times "Donovan's writing is deep and resonant. There is an underlying tension that becomes all but palpable." -The Boston Book Review "Young women need more coming-of-age novels with complex heroine narrators giving their teen's-eye view of the world; Donovan's bold, compelling novel helps to fill that need." -Booklist "Stacey Donovan's Dive neatly dismantles the argument that fiction for teens can't also be serious, messy, thought-provoking literature. . . . [She] is braver, willing to imagine a world in which kids, like adults, write poetry, and in which adults, like kids, are lost." -Noah Berlatsky, The Atlantic "Dive is a beautiful YA novel of the highest quality." -Nora Olsen, author of Frenemy of the People Stacey Donovan is a critically acclaimed author of fiction and nonfiction for adults and young adults. She is the founder of Donovan Edits, and has edited or ghostwritten more than twenty-five books, including three New York Times bestsellers and several nonfiction titles that have become leading works in their respective fields. Donovan lives in New York, where she continues to write and edit.
