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Awake in the World book cover
Awake in the World
2019
First Published
3.51
Average Rating
320
Number of Pages

A boy, a girl, an impoverished oil town, and a star-crossed romance saved by the fight for survival. As the sun sets off the coast of the small California town of Orilla del Cielo, you can see the silhouettes of the oil rigs. Their shadows look jarring against the serene backdrop, their sharpness a reminder of unfulfilled promises. To Zach, they are a reminder of loss—his father, an oil worker who drowned years before. With a poor family struggling to make ends meet, Zach's future feels equally bleak. Until he meets Vanessa, an optimistic girl whose sights are literally set on the stars. Inspired by her idol, Carl Sagan, she plans to study astronomy at Cornell. But as oil prospectors in search of black gold know, the future is uncertain . . . and fortunes can always be flipped. Jason Gurley delivers a gorgeous debut young adult novel about dreams and believing in love—and yourself—to reach them.

Avg Rating
3.51
Number of Ratings
651
5 STARS
15%
4 STARS
38%
3 STARS
33%
2 STARS
11%
1 STARS
3%
goodreads

Author

Jason Gurley
Jason Gurley
Author · 16 books
Jason Gurley is the author of Awake in the World (Roaring Brook, 2019) and Eleanor (Crown, 2016), and co-author of The Edge of Sleep (St. Martin's, 2023). His short fiction appears in the anthologies Loosed Upon the World (Saga, 2015) and Help Fund My Robot Army!!! (2014). He lives and writes in Scappoose, Oregon. More at www.jasongurley.com.
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