Jennifer Mary G

As a recent graduate of Wesleyan University, Jenny Fran Davis has written a fresh, witty young adult debut told in a series of letters, emails, journal entries and various ephemera that capture a year of the high school experience of one spunky heroine. Where’d You Go, Bernadette for the YA audience, EVERYTHING MUST GO (Wednesday Books; October 3, 2017) features a fiercely feminist protagonist, Flora, who isn’t afraid to stand out from the high school crowd even when that crowd is a colorful group of teens at a high school for the gifted upstate. Capturing the zeitgeist of today’s socially active generation, Flora and her fellow students are full of personality, creating a drama that’s full of laughs and tears and relatable to anyone who is currently or has survived being a teenager.

Flora Goldwasser has fallen in love. She won’t admit it to anyone, but something about Elijah Huck has pulled her under. When he tells her about the hippie Quaker school he attended in the Hudson Valley called Quare Academy, where he’ll be teaching next year, Flora gives up her tiny Upper East Side prep school for a life on a farm, hoping to woo him. A fish out of water, Flora stands out like a sore thumb in her vintage suits among the tattered tunics and ripped jeans of the rest of the student body. When Elijah doesn’t show up, Flora must make the most of the situation and will ultimately learn more about herself than she ever thought possible.

Davis’s “smart and witty” (Publishers Weekly) debut will take the reader back to those days in high school, chasing after the wrong boys and worrying about high school gossip. As “introspective, feminist, nuanced” (Booklist), Flora’s story will connect with anyone who thought that a love interest could hold the key to happiness, only to discover that is far from the case. Guaranteed to make you fall in love with the personality driven cast of characters, EVERYTHING MUST GO is the perfect book for teens discovering where they fit in during those awkward years or anyone who has ever felt out of place.

About the Author
JENNY FRAN DAVIS was born in Manhattan and spent four months avoiding (but later embracing) millet mountains in a peace- and justice-focused Quaker community in northern California. Fond of big dogs, doo-wop, and Judy Blume, she attended the Chapin School and is currently an undergraduate at Wesleyan University. Everything Must Go is her debut novel.

Praise for Everything Must Go:

“Written through text messages, blog posts, letters, journal entries, and more, Davis’s smart and witty debut captures a girl’s changing attitude and gradual acclimation to a very different environment. Filled with vibrant characters, it balances gentle jabs at pop culture and self-righteousness with thought-provoking ideas about feminist ideals and human frailties.”
—Publishers Weekly, STARRED review

“An introspective, feminist, nuanced story that is difficult to place in any one box. This standout debut is as empowering for readers as it is for its protagonist.”
—Booklist

“[Flora’s] friendships, both new and old, and her strong ties with her family are well-portrayed. Told via letters, emails, and journal entries, this book insightfully handles a problematic relationship and presents a flawed, intelligent, and well-crafted protagonist.”
—School Library Journal

“The core of Flora’s journey presents opportunities for readers to grapple with gender, sex, race, classism—even Marxism…Thoughtful and provocative.”
—Kirkus Reviews