A Short History of the Girl Next Door

Get your tissues ready for this unrequited love story that’s equal parts hilarious and heartbreaking and will appeal to fans of Jennifer Niven, John Green, and Jesse Andrews. Seriously, how can you see a person nearly every day of your life and never think a thing of it, then all of a sudden, one day, it’s different? You see that goofy grin a thousand times and just laugh. But goofy grin #1,001 nearly stops your heart? Right. That sounds like a bad movie already. Matt Wainwright is constantly sabotaged by the overdramatic movie director in his head. He can’t tell his best friend, Tabby, how he really feels about her, he implodes on the JV basketball team, and the only place he feels normal is in Mr. Ellis’s English class. If this were a movie, everything would work out perfectly. Tabby would discover that Matt’s madly in love with her, be overcome with emotion, and would fall into his arms. Maybe in the rain. But that’s not how it works. Matt watches Tabby get swept away by senior basketball star and all-around great guy Liam Branson. Losing Tabby to Branson is bad enough, but screwing up and losing her as a friend is even worse. After a tragic accident, Matt finds himself left on the sidelines, on the verge of spiraling out of control and losing everything that matters to him. From debut author Jared Reck comes a fiercely funny and heart-wrenching novel about love, longing, and what happens when life as you know it changes in an instant. “This story broke my heart and made me laugh and gave me hope–and really, what more can you ask of a book than that?” –Jennifer E. Smith, author of Windfall and The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight “In the blink of an eye, A Short History of the Girl Next Door goes from hilarious to haunting to harrowing to heartbreaking to hopeful and back.” –Jeff Zentner, award-winning author of The Serpent King and Goodbye Days “Pair this with . . . Jeff Zetner’s Goodbye Days or Adam Silvera’s History is All You Left Me.”–Booklist “Recommend this to readers who enjoyed Steven Levenson’s Dear Evan Hansen.”–VOYA