Debut Tuesdays: The Fates Will Find Their Way by Hannah Pittard

Debut Tuesday: Okay, it doesn't have the alliteration of Follow Fridays or Waiting on Wednesday, two other popular book blogging memes, but this is a fun way for us here at the Odyssey to share with you the books we're most excited about each week. Tuesday is the usual release date for any new book in the publishing industry. Hmmm...maybe we should just call it Terrific Tuesday instead?

The Fates Will Find Their Way by Hannah Pittard is so wholly fresh and inventive that I read it start to finish in practically one sitting. From the uncommon point of view (a group of boys collectively acts as a first-person-plural narrator) to the plot ambiguities that keep the reader constantly guessing what is true and what is supposition, this book is more than just the story of a 16 year old girl who goes missing and the effect her disappearance has on her family, her classmates, and her small town. It is a story of unintended consequences, a tale of imagination and self-reflection, a multi-generational coming of age narrative, and above all, it proves that the most haunting words in our language are "what if?"

Though the book goes on sale today, I read this book several months ago when my sales rep from Harper, Anne DeCourcey, pressed an advance readers copy of this book into my hands and assured me that it was worth my time. Boy, was it! I took it home and read it that weekend, then came back to the store to make other people read it, too. We unanimously decided to choose Fates for our First Editions Club selection for January, so she'll be at our store very soon. I also had the unrivaled pleasure of meeting Hannah last week in Washington, DC, at a bookseller dinner hosted by HarperCollins, and I can assure you that she is outspoken and fascinating and everything you want your dinner partner to be. If you like innovative fiction and are on the lookout for the next big literary thing, do yourself a favor and pick up Hannah's book!

~Emily Crowe