The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Dear Martin, delivers a gripping romance about two teens: a certified genius living with bipolar disorder and a politician’s son who is running from his own addiction and grief. Don’t miss this gut punch of a novel about mental illness, loss, and discovering you are worthy of love.
Intrigued? Well read on to discover the synopsis and an excerpt from Nic Stone’s Chaos Theory, which is out February 28th.
Scars exist to remind us of what we’ve survived.
DETACHED
Since Shelbi enrolled at Windward Academy as a senior and won’t be there very long, she hasn’t bothered making friends. What her classmates don’t know about her can’t be used to hurt her–you know, like it did at her last school.
WASTED
Andy Criddle is not okay. At all.
He’s had far too much to drink.
Again. Which is bad.
And things are about to get worse.
When Shelbi sees Andy at his lowest, she can relate. So she doesn’t resist reaching out. And there’s no doubt their connection has them both seeing stars . . . but the closer they get, the more the past threatens to pull their universes apart.
Shelbi clears her throat, and Andy’s head snaps up. “Sorry,” she says. “Didn’t mean to startle you. Just . . .
wanted to make sure you also read the other thing in the folder.”
So Andy tucks the brochure back in and pulls the sheet of paper out.
FRIENDSHIP AGREEMENT
I, , on this day of , as regards entry into a formal friendship with Shelbi Camille Augustine, knowingly and willfully agree to abide by the terms set forth below.
- The use of any and all mental illness slurs— cuckoo, (“cuckchoo,” “for Cocoa Puffs,” ), cray, cray-cray, crazy, crazy pants, nuts, nutty, nutjob, wackjob, whackadoodle, off her rocker, deranged, basket case, head case, mental case, insane (“in the membrane”), spaz, loon(ey), yahoo, fruitcake, demented, crackpot, loca, lunatic, meshuggah, lost her marbles, “bipolar” (used derogatorily), etc.—is strictly prohibited.
- Don’t make Ever.
- If you sense “out of the ordinary” behavior, you may ask Shelbi how she is doing, but don’t get awkward and start looking for symptoms that aren’t there.
- Along those lines, if Shelbi confirms that she is dealing with an episode, don’t take any action that will exacerbate things or be the opposite of This includes, but is not limited to: encouraging risky behavior; exposing her to known triggers (this includes in conversation); being overtly unkind; telling her to “cheer up” or “calm down” or “relax” or “think positive.” (Trust: if it were that simple, she wouldn’t be having an episode.)
- If it becomes too much to handle, be forthright and friend-break-up with Shelbi. She’s dealt with people bailing before and can handle it, but isn’t a fan of being ghosted.
- Do not, under any circumstances, fall in love with
Andy clears his throat. “Number six is a bit bold, don’t you think?”
Shelbi won’t look him in the eye. “Just making sure I cover all my bases. I’m settled in who I am and how my brain works, but in my experience, people can get weird. Especially when those kinds of feelings get involved. And romance really isn’t my thing, so best to lay it out up front.”
“Ah.”
“Being forthright here, I don’t really have any friends. The only person my age I interact with regularly is my cousin. And though I haven’t had a serious episode in sixteen and a half months, the last one was a doozie and was triggered by something that happened with a ‘friend.’ I’d prefer to never go through anything like that again. Hence the whole agreement thing.”
Andy is quiet for a few seconds, and then he says: “What are they like? Your episodes, I mean.”
And to his surprise, she smiles. “Glad you asked. That’s partially why I brought you up here. So I could explain with a visual metaphor.”
Andy almost laughs from what he’s learned about her so far, this is definitely a Shelbi Augustine thing to do. “Okay,” he says. “I’m listening.”
She shifts her gaze into the distance. “Look out there.
Everything seems all peaceful and serene, right?” It does. “Right.”
“Well, we’re approximately two thousand three hundred and thirty-two miles north of the equator. At the equator, the earth is rotating at just over a thousand miles per hour.” She looks at Andy. “Do you know what would happen if it suddenly stopped spinning?”
Andy thinks for a second and realizes this is something he never would’ve thought to even consider. “No. But I definitely want to know now.”
Shelbi laughs. “Well, in a nutshell, because of inertia, the atmosphere and oceans would continue to move at over a thousand miles per hour. Which would equal a natural disaster unlike any this planet has ever seen.”
“Okay . . .”
“It’d be like the biggest, baddest, most epic tsunami and an ultra-supersonic wind happening simultaneously across the globe. Everything rooted would be ripped from the earth—buildings, trees, even mountains, including this mini one we’re sitting on. And anything that moves—people, vehicles, animals, et cetera—would just fly off the ground like blown bits of eraser dust.”
“Dang. That sounds . . . Yeah, I don’t really know what to say to that.”
“That’s what an episode feels like for me,” she says. “My whole world stops dead, but everything around me keeps going. I get thrown into this, like, emotional cataclysm and feel completely out of control.”
Excerpted with permission from Chaos Theory by Nic Stone/Crown Books for Young Readers
