In the summer of 2000, AJ Graves dreams of writing for SNL; instead, she's stuck working in a video rental store, with slim odds of escaping her Massachusetts small town and large family. Then in walks Noah Drew, the enigmatic and intense scion of the Drew acting dynasty, and her life changes forever. Despite wildly different upbringings, the two forge a deep, cosmic bond first as friends, then as acting partnersuntil one day, Noah disappears without a word. Seven years later in New York City, AJ is shocked to find herself cast in the same intergalactic TV production as Noah, by then a well-known Hollywood heartthrob. As their on-screen characters grow closer every day, the lines between reality and acting begin to blur. Unable to stay away from each other, AJ and Noah are forced to confront the truth of what happened years agoand the devastating secret that will send their lives careening apart, even as fate continues to draw them together. Blending unforgettable characters, explosive chemistry, and devastating emotion, Into the Blue is a journey unlike any otherone that asks: What does it mean to diverge from the script to forge your own story?

Autorentext
Emma Brodie is an executive editor at Clarkson Potter. She graduated from Johns Hopkins University’s Writing Seminars program, and her debut novel, Songs in Ursa Major, received the American Book Award. She lives on Martha’s Vineyard with her husband and their very good dog, Freddie Mercury.

Klappentext

REESE’S BOOK CLUB PICK • An epic, decades-spanning love story that blazes through the worlds of acting and comedy and charts a connection unlike any other.

“INTOXICATING.”—TAYLOR JENKINS REID, author of Atmosphere
“SMART AND ROMANTIC.”—GABRIELLE ZEVIN, author of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
“DEEPLY MOVING.”—KEVIN WILSON, author of Nothing to See Here

“The truth is there’s no such thing as a normal life. There’s just the time you get and how you spend it.”

In the summer of 2000, AJ Graves dreams of writing for Saturday Night Live; instead, she’s stuck working in a video rental store, with slim odds of escaping her small Massachusetts town. Then in walks Noah Drew, the enigmatic and intense scion of the Drew acting dynasty, and her life changes forever. Despite wildly different upbringings, the two forge a deep, cosmic bond, first as friends, then as acting partners—until one day, Noah disappears without a word.

Seven years later, in New York City, AJ is shocked to find herself cast in the same intergalactic TV production as Noah, by then a well-known Hollywood heartthrob. As their on-screen characters grow closer every day, the lines between reality and acting begin to blur. Unable to stay away from each other, AJ and Noah are forced to confront the truth of what happened years ago—and the devastating secret that will send their lives careening apart, even as fate continues to draw them together.

Blending unforgettable characters, explosive chemistry and yearning, and profound emotion, Into the Blue is a journey unlike any other—one that asks: What does it mean to diverge from the script to forge your own story?

Zusammenfassung
An epic, decades-spanning love story that blazes through the worlds of acting and comedy and charts a connection unlike any other.

“INTOXICATING.”—TAYLOR JENKINS REID, author of Atmosphere
“SMART AND ROMANTIC.”—GABRIELLE ZEVIN, author of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
“DEEPLY MOVING.”—KEVIN WILSON, author of Nothing to See Here

“The truth is there’s no such thing as a normal life. There’s just the time you get and how you spend it.”

In the summer of 2000, AJ Graves dreams of writing for Saturday Night Live; instead, she’s stuck working in a video rental store, with slim odds of escaping her small Massachusetts town. Then in walks Noah Drew, the enigmatic and intense scion of the Drew acting dynasty, and her life changes forever. Despite wildly different upbringings, the two forge a deep, cosmic bond, first as friends, then as acting partners—until one day, Noah disappears without a word.

Seven years later, in New York City, AJ is shocked to find herself cast in the same intergalactic TV production as Noah, by then a well-known Hollywood heartthrob. As their on-screen characters grow closer every day, the lines between reality and acting begin to blur. Unable to stay away from each other, AJ and Noah are forced to confront the truth of what happened years ago—and the devastating secret that will send their lives careening apart, even as fate continues to draw them together.

Blending unforgettable characters, explosive chemistry and yearning, and profound emotion, Into the Blue is a journey unlike any other—one that asks: What does it mean to diverge from the script to forge your own story?

Leseprobe
Gladstone, Massachusetts

June 2000

AJ Graves rewound the video and hit play.

That morning, she was pulling a doubleheader at Reel World Video: watching Astronauticals on the store’s silver Panasonic while writing Astronauticals fan fiction behind the register.

Or she was trying to. She’d broken her arm last month during track finals—just in time for junior prom. Each keystroke was torment, but AJ typed on. Anything for her twelve followers.

Doubleheaders were one of many reasons AJ loved her shifts at Reel World. With four siblings at home, AJ barely had space to think, much less write. By contrast, a solitary afternoon among Reel World’s eclectic posters and inventory felt like teleporting from bleak Gladstone to New York—or what she knew of New York from Friends, Felicity, and Saturday Night Live.

That was AJ’s dream—to move to the city and write for SNL. It was also why she watched and watched Astronauticals, the 1964 cult series about hippie pirates traveling the stars in the hump of a giant space whale. The show was totally improvised, which according to Storm, Reel World’s owner and cinematic Yoda, made it a staple for any aspiring comedian.

And it was hilarious. As a devout fan, or Nautical, AJ could recite every line.

As episode 1.10, “The Mirror of Janus,” began to play, she glanced down at the cast restricting her right arm. The ink from her track teammates’ signatures had bled into the fiberglass like survivor’s-guilt tie-dye. AJ felt a stab of dejection; New York had never felt farther.

To put it bluntly, her stupid arm had ruined her life.

AJ’s endgame had been planned out so beautifully: A summer spent interning at The Berkshire Eagle and attending heavily scouted soccer intensives would have perfectly teed up her senior year and college applications. With luck, she would have been looking at a full ride to NYU.

But her accident had destroyed all that.

No driving meant no internship at The Berkshire Eagle. No vigorous activity meant no soccer intensives. No references, no scouts. No scholarship. No escape.

“Relax,” her mom had said. “You’re still a shoo-in for UMass.”

AJ’s whole family had gone to UMass. Her mom, her dad. Her siblings Patrick and Libby both loved it. Both popular. Both on track to graduate, return to Gladstone, become their parents, and die.

Now, at seventeen, AJ felt trapped—like the rest of her life had been scripted, and she hated this movie. Her hours alone at Reel World were her only escape.

The partition rippled, a beaded curtain depicting the All-Seeing Eye, and Storm emerged …