The Last Boy and Girl in the World

Gr 8 Up—Keeley Hewitt, officially "the last girl in Aberdeen," tells the story of the last days of her hometown as she floats in a boat above it. As torrential rains threaten the town of Aberdeen's survival, Keeley and her friends embark on a last, desperate hurrah for life as they know it. Vivian uses the setting of a natural disaster, with dates and weather forecasts prefacing each chapter, to imbue every event in the protagonist's conversational narrative with the weight of impending doom. At the mercy of dirty political maneuvering and the whims of the elements, the teen finds the courage to pursue Jesse, the ridiculously cool boy she's loved forever. Her father rediscovers his sense of purpose in a determined bid to save the town, and Keeley's best friend, Morgan, grows frustrated with Keeley's tendency to wisecrack her way through pain and loss. Fans of Gayle Forman's If I Stay (Dutton, 2009), Daniel Handler's Why We Broke Up (Little, Brown, 2011), and E. Lockhart's We Were Liars (Delacorte, 2014) will be pleased with the dramatic retrospective narration.