Published in 2020
336 pages
Jenni Hendriks’s mom often complained she was “a real smart**s,” so she decided to make a career out of it. She moved to Hollywood and worked her way from coffee-fetcher to writer for the television series How I Met Your Mother. She is also a cartoonist whose feminist-inspired works have been published in Ms. magazine. A film school graduate, she knows how to rack focus and wrangle a cable and can tell you what a best boy does.
Ted Caplan has been working in the film industry for over twenty years as a writer, sound designer, and music editor. He has helped craft the soundtracks to many high-profile projects, such as The Maze Runner, Logan, both Deadpool films, and The Hate U Give. He is also the screenwriter of Love Sonia, a feature film about international sex trafficking from the producers of Life of Pi and Slumdog Millionaire.
What is this book about?
Seventeen-year-old Veronica Clarke never thought she’d find herself holding a thick piece of plastic and staring at two solid pink lines. How her boyfriend managed to get her pregnant, even with the most consistent use of condoms, is a mystery—but with a promising college-bound future now disappearing before her eyes, Veronica considers a decision she never imagined she’d have to make: an abortion.
There’s just one catch—the closest place to legally get one is over nine hundred miles away in New Mexico, and Veronica doesn’t have a car. Desperate, she turns to the only person she believes won’t judge her: Bailey Butler, a legendary misfit at Jefferson High—and Veronica’s ex-best friend.
The plan is straightforward: a fourteen-hour drive to the clinic, three hours for the appointment, and a fourteen-hour drive home. What could go wrong? Not much, apart from three days of stolen cars, shotguns, crazed ex-boyfriends, kind-hearted truck stop strippers, ferretnapping, aliens, and the pain and betrayal of a broken friendship that can’t be outrun. Soon, Veronica must risk everything to repair the hurt she’s caused. Under the vast starlit skies of the American Southwest, Veronica and Bailey discover the road to adulthood isn’t easy—but it’s better with a friend by your side.
