WHITE CHALK by Pavarti K. Tyler coming July 22, 2013
Literary Fiction/Coming of Age Novel with a brave look at teenage life, containing some strong adult themes to generate honest and frank conversation.
About the Book
Chelle isn’t a typical 13-year-old girl—she doesn’t laugh with friends, play sports, or hang out at the mall after school. Instead, she navigates a world well beyond her years.
Life in Dawson, ND spins on as she grasps at people, pleading for someone to save her—to return her to the simple childhood of unicorns on her bedroom wall and stories on her father’s knee.
When Troy Christiansen walks into her life, Chelle is desperate to believe his arrival will be her salvation. So much so, she forgets to save herself. After experiencing a tragedy at school, her world begins to crack, causing a deeper scar in her already fragile psyche.
Follow Chelle’s twisted tale of modern adolescence, as she travels down the rabbit hole into a reality none of us wants to admit actually exists.
- Publisher: Evolved Publishing
- Publication Date: July 22, 2013
- Genre: Literary Fiction
- SubGenre: Coming of Age
- Audience: Adult
- Pages: 250
Excerpt from White Chalk:
Class oozed by. The assignment
proved easy, but waiting for the inevitable knock on the door, or ring of the
teacher’s phone, made the seconds expand exponentially. By the end of the
period, I’d half convinced myself I should just go to the office and surrender,
admit everything that happened and beg for leniency.
When the bell rang and the frenzy
began to herd ourselves into the cattle drives called hallways, I had mostly
regained control of myself. Except I never realized that the computer room was
in the same hallway as high school English, and I didn’t know that Xiu and Troy
were in the same class for fourth period. I certainly didn’t have any clue
about what greeted me when I walked out of my classroom.
Xiu leaned against the wall, its
puce green tile doing nothing to diminish her exotic beauty. A languid smile
played on the corners of her lips as she tilted her head up, listening to
whatever perfectly fascinating thing Troy said.
He had one hand on the wall next to
her head, his backpack dangling without fear from his shoulder. He reached up
with his other hand and grazed her cheek with the back of his fingers.
Her deep red lips parted in
anticipation. Soft almond eyes drifted closed as she stretched her neck to meet
his incoming kiss. His hair, pulled back in a dark stripe along the top of his
head, shone in the florescent light as he took her lips in his.
I dropped my bag and stumbled back,
almost tripping over it. I fell along the linoleum floor until my back leaned
against the cool tile. Speckles of light shone in my eyes, while bile rose in
my throat and a wrenching aching heartbreak shook through me, threatening to
knock me down and steal my kidneys, selling them on the black market. They
weren’t any good to me anymore. Who needs kidneys when your heart’s been
removed with a grapefruit spoon?
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White Chalk (Evolved Publishing) marks Tyler’s third full length novel and promises readers familiar with her work the same mind bending experience. Her other projects include: Shadow on the Wall (Fighting Monkey Press) and Two Moons of Sera (Fighting Monkey Press). Shadow on the Wall has been received many awards: Winner of the General Fiction/Novel Category of the 2012 Next Generation Indie Book Awards, Winner in the Fiction: Multicultural category for The 2012 USA Best Book Awards, and Finalist in the Multicultural Fiction category for the 2012 International Book Awards.
White Chalk has been hailed as “brave”, “raw”, and “destroyingly beautiful”. In line with novels such as White Oleander, Thirteen Reasons Why and Gemma, White Chalk invites you to witness one girl’s heartrending story of confusion and desperation.
Award
winning author of multi-cultural and transgressive literature, Pavarti K Tyler
is an artist, wife, mother and number cruncher. She graduated Smith College New York
2 comments:
Interesting review. You got me wondering...
~Just Jill
Alison, thanks so much for your support! I really appreciate you hosting me and White Chalk on your blog :)
Pav
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