Cold Girls

After witnessing the death of her best friend and nearly dying herself, Rory is forced to confront the trauma and grief affecting every aspect of her life, despite the cold façade she uses to pretend everything is fine. Eighteen-year-old Rory Quinn-Morelli doesn't want to die; she wants refuge from reality for even a minute: the reality where she survived the car crash eight months ago, and her best friend, Liv, didn't. Yet her exasperating mother won't believe the Xanax incident was an accident, and her therapist is making it increasingly hard to maintain the detached, impenetrable cold girl façade she adopted from Liv. After she unintentionally reconnects with Liv's parents, Rory must decide: will she keep Liv's and her secrets inside, or will she finally allow herself to break? And if she breaks, what will she unearth amid the pieces? AGES: 14 to 18 AUTHOR: Maxine Rae attended Tulane University where she was taught and singled out for commendation by two-time National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward. While working on Cold Girls, Maxine received feedback and mentorship from National Book Award Finalist Charles Baxter. She later revised and workshopped the manuscript in the selective Novel-In-a-Year program at StoryStudio Chicago, whose artistic director is Pulitzer Prize in Fiction Finalist and Andrew Carnegie Medal winner Rebecca Makkai. As a young, queer woman from the Chicago area, Maxine has written a debut molded by personal experience and emotional truth.