A Short History of the Girl Next Door

<b>Equal parts hilarious and heartbreaking this unrequited-love story will appeal to fans of Jennifer Niven John Green and Jesse Andrews.</b><br> <b>&#160;</b><br> <i>Seriously how can you see a person nearly every day of your life and never think a thing of it then all of a sudden one day it&#146;s different? You see that goofy grin a thousand times and just laugh. But goofy grin #1001 nearly stops your heart? </i><br> <i>&#160;</i><br> <i>Right. That sounds like a bad movie already.</i><br> <b>&#160;</b><br> Matt Wainwright is constantly sabotaged by the overdramatic movie director in his head. He can&#146;t tell his best friend Tabby how he really feels about her he implodes on the JV basketball team and the only place he feels normal is in Mr. Ellis&#146;s English class discussing the greatest fart scenes in literature and writing poems about pissed-off candy-cane lumberjacks.<br> &#160;<br> If this were a movie everything would work out perfectly. Tabby would discover that Matt&#146;s madly in love with her be overcome with emotion and fall into his arms. Maybe in the rain.<br> &#160;<br> But that&#146;s not how it works. Matt watches Tabby get swept away by senior basketball star and all-around great guy Liam Branson. Losing Tabby to Branson is bad enough but screwing up and losing her as a friend is even worse. <br> &#160;<br> After a tragic accident Matt finds himself left on the sidelines on the verge of spiraling out of control and losing everything that matters to him. From debut author Jared Reck comes a fiercely funny and heart-wrenching novel about love longing and what happens when life as you know it changes in an instant.<br><br>&#147;This story broke my heart and made me laugh and gave me hope&#151;and really what more can you ask of a book than that? I loved it and I have a feeling you will too.&#148; &#151;Jennifer E. Smith author of <i>Windfall </i>and <i>The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight<br></i><br>&#147;In the blink of an eye <i>A Short History of the Girl Next Door</i> goes from hilarious to haunting to harrowing to heartbreaking to hopeful and back.&#148; &#151;Jeff Zentner award-winning author of <i>The Serpent King</i> and <i>Goodbye Days</i><br> &#160;<br> &#147;Sharp smart and unforgettable.&#148; &#151;Kate Hattemer critically acclaimed author of <i>The Vigilante Poets of Selwyn Academy</i> and <i>The Land of 10000 Madonnas<br><br></i>&#147;A powerful novel about first love the intimacy of childhood friendships and moving forward from loss.&#148; &#151;<i>Publishers Weekly<br><br></i>&#147;Pair this with other novels that explore loss from a male perspective such as Jeff Zentner&#146;s <i>Goodbye Days </i>or Adam Silvera&#146;s <i>History Is All You Left Me</i>.&#148; &#151;<i>Booklist<br></i><br>&#147;Reck gives subtlety and depth to Matt so he&#146;s believable as a flawed guy negotiating his way through his feelings for Tabby as well as his social status in school his ideas of masculinity and his insecurities.&#148;&#160;&#151;<i>The Bulletin<br><br></i>&#147;Recommend this to readers who enjoyed Steven Levenson&#146;s <i>Dear Evan Hansen</i>.&#148; &#151;<i>VOYA<br></i>