the many books of rocky callen
Get the first chapters of my YA novels...
Crashing Into You and A Breath Too Late and join my author newsletter for updates, giveaways and bookish announcements. You’ll also get a behind the scenes as my books make their way into the world.
For fans of Girl in Pieces, All the Bright Places, and Girl, Interrupted comes a haunting and breathtaking YA contemporary debut novel that packs a powerful message:
hope can be found in the darkness.
"An amazing and wrenching story." —Printz Award–winning author Jandy Nelson
"Raw, heartbreaking, and poignant." —New York Times-bestselling author Kathleen Glasgow
“Achingly poignant . . . a love letter and a life raft to the brokenhearted.” –New York Times bestselling author Alison McGhee
Seventeen-year-old Ellie had no hope left. Yet the day after she dies by suicide, she finds herself in the midst of an out-of-body experience. She is a spectator, swaying between past and present, retracing the events that unfolded prior to her death.
But there are gaps in her memory, fractured pieces Ellie is desperate to re-assemble. There's her mother, a songbird who wanted to break free from her oppressive cage. The boy made of brushstrokes and goofy smiles who brought color into a gray world. Her brooding father, with his sad puppy eyes and clenched fists. And Ellie's determined to find out why a piece of her was left behind.
Told in epistolary-like style, Rocky Callen's deeply moving A Breath Too Late sensitively examines the beautiful and terrible moments that make up a life and the possibilities that live in even the darkest of places.
purchase here
“This is an important story. A necessary story”
National Book Award finalist and Printz Award–winning author An Na
In this fiercely moving YA romance novel, Leti Rivera's love of street racing is put to the test when tragedy strikes her family and threatens to tear her apart from the boy she's falling for.
"Put this love story at the top of your to be read pile." —Kasie West, author of Sunkissed
"This novel should hold an important place in teen libraries." —School Library Journal, starred review
"Telenovela flair to a charming teen romance." —Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
"This novel should hold an important place in teen libraries." —School Library Journal, starred review
Seventeen-year-old Leti Rivera dreams of becoming a famous female street racer. Her brother taught her how to drive so fast that nothing can catch her.
But when Jacob Fleckenstein crashes into her life, Leti starts to think that running isn’t always the answer. Together, inside her car, they both feel like they’re flying, and Jacob’s gentleness and honesty threaten Leti’s vow to keep her heart tight in her fist and her grief locked away.
Yet after tragedy strikes following a race, Leti blames herself and swears an oath, a juramento, to give up driving. But will she be able to keep her promise when racing could be the very thing that saves Jacob . . . and herself? Perfect for fans of Netflix's Atypical and I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter.
purchase here
"a lightning-fast plot for a powerful emotional payoff"
Booklist, starred review
Channeling their own experiences, sixteen exceptional authors subvert mental health stereotypes in a powerful and uplifting collection of fiction.
“The sixteen fierce and radiant stories in Ab(solutely) Normal provide powerful affirmation for young people everywhere seeking to overcome stereotypes of what it means to live."
—Rob Costello, author of The Dancing Bears: Queer Fables for the End Times
“Ab(solutely) Normal is absolutely extraordinary and necessary. We need these stories.”
—Rita Williams-Garcia, award-winning author of A Sitting in St. James
A teen activist wrestles with protest-related anxiety and PTSD. A socially anxious vampire learns he has to save his town by (gulp) working with people. As part of her teshuvah, a girl writes letters to the ex-boyfriend she still loves, revealing that her struggle with angry outbursts is related to PMDD. A boy sheds uncontrollable tears but finds that in doing so he’s helping to enable another’s healing.
In this inspiring, unflinching, and hope-filled mixed-genre collection, sixteen diverse and notable authors draw on their own lived experiences with mental health conditions to create stunning works of fiction that will uplift and empower you, break your heart and stitch it back together stronger than before. Through powerful prose, verse, and graphics, the characters in this anthology defy stereotypes as they remind readers that living with a mental health condition doesn’t mean that you’re defined by it. Each story is followed by a note from its author to the reader, and comprehensive back matter includes bios for the contributors as well as a collection of relevant resources.
purchase here
"as entertaining to read as it is poignant and life-affirming."
Rob Costello, author of The Dancing Bears: Queer Fables for the End Times