Today I have the fabulous Vicki Grove on the blog!  She is the author of multiple books including the upcoming, Everything Breaks, coming from Putnam in October 2013.

Describe Everything Breaks in 140 characters or less.

Wow, only 140 characters, huh? Okay, I think this book is sort of complicated, but I’ll give it a shot. Tucker is barely functioning after the drunk driving accident that kills his three best friends. Then a strange hitchhiker dives into his car and takes him for the ride of his life. How’s that, Katie? 148, I think. Maybe 147? I guess I could take the word “strange” out of the mix and land on target. But I’d rather expand that word to “supernatural” and give you more of a sense of the genre of the book. 🙂

Where did the idea for Everything Breaks come from?

The idea for Everything Breaks came partly from a horrific drunk driving accident that actually took place at my own high school when I was a junior. Three boys sailed off a bluff road in a 1967 Mustang convertible. There was a triple closed casket funeral but one of the boy’s mothers didn’t like the way we kids were getting into the drama of the thing, thinking of it more like a movie than real life, with us as the stars. She went forward and opened her son’s casket and we all had to file by George on our way from the church. Believe me, that’s not a thing you ever forget, and I used it as the opening section of this book. The fourth boy, Tucker, I invented, and of course I imagined up the characters from Greek mythology that are attracted to him by his instability.

What would you say makes Everything Breaks stand out in todays YA market?

I have no idea if Everything Breaks will stand out in today’s YA market, which is formidable. The bar is set so high these days, and many adults are also reading YA now. All I know is I write as well as I can and from as deep a place inside myself as I’m capable of going. I actually don’t read other YA’s when I’m into a book project myself. It’s simply too intimidating. One other thing. All of us bookies, you and me and all our friends, are a stubborn bunch and cling with all our strength to our own opinions about what’s a great read and what isn’t. This is one thing I love about us. We differ in our opinions, but hold onto them for dear life because WE LOVE BOOKS! So, who knows? I do my best and I’m so grateful to be given a chance to say what I want to say and to think about things that are so mysterious and interesting to think about.

What was your reaction when you saw the cover for the first time?

My reaction when I saw this cover was that the road looked incredibly like the road where I live here in the Missouri Ozarks and that the dog (except for the fact that it’s a monster) could just be my dog, Imogene. I often find that a cover expresses so closely the models you use in a book that it’s a shock, like the artist is reading your mind. I think the thing I love best on the cover is the headlights, because I know, and the reader will soon know, that the boys behind those headlights have very little time left. The picture catches the moment when things could go a very different way. This is a book about fragility. When everything breaks, it so often breaks in just a single quick second.

Readers, you can find out more about Vicki and Everything Breaks by visiting her website!

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Tucker was supposed to be the designated driver. But there was something about the beauty of that last true summer night, that made him want to feel out-of-control just once. He drank so much and so quickly that he was instantly sick. That left Trey to drive. “I’ll catch up to you later,” were the last words Tucker would ever say to his friends as he heaved by the side of the road. It was the last time Tucker would ever see them alive.

Tucker’s grief and guilt are just about unbearable and he wonders how he can continue living himself. When he meets the Ferryman who carries souls of the newly deceased across the rivers that divide the world of the living from the world of the dead, Tucker gets a chance to decide: live or die. The temptation to join his three best friends on the other side may be too much for Tucker to overcome. A gripping, haunting and emotional read.

And if that’s not enough to get you to add this one to your TBR, check out this little snippet from the book!

There was a lot more that I wanted to tell her, like that everything in this beautiful treasure house of a world breaks, and sometimes things break so bad, all you can do is hope to get your heart to stop bleeding long enough for you to sift through the ashes so you can try to gain some slight understanding. But some things that break real bad can be mended if you’re lucky enough to have someone on your side with a ton of glue who won’t give up.

Want a chance to read an early copy of Everything Breaks?  Fill out the Rafflecopter for a chance to win an ARC! (US only!)

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