Sometimes when I do school visits/Zooms, the readers ask, “what’s your favorite book that you’ve written?” and I usually say that I’m fickle and I love different books for different reasons, blah blah blah, but NOW, at LAST I have an answer. It’s Trouble in the Stars. This is truly the book of my heart.
Trouble is such a funny, weird shapeshifter kid. I hope you will enjoy their adventures!
My next book, Trouble in the Stars, comes out soon, and I thought you might like to see the letter about it that was sent to booksellers and early readers. Book of my heart!
Dear reader—
Boy, has it been a tough year. A lot of my writer-friends have felt so slammed by all the upheaval in our world, finding it hard to find that well of creative joy that we tap into when we write. I was in the same uneasy state when I started working on my next book.
Then Trouble appeared. I’d been thinking about my own kids. They were little when I wrote my first novel, and they’re both in their twenties now, and I thought wow, kids are shapeshifters, aren’t they? And then I thought, hey. What about a kid who is literally a shapeshifter? And Trouble took shape. Trouble starts out as a blob of goo, all alone, floating in empty space. From there they turn into an adorable puppy and then into a human boy. Trouble knows they are searching for something—for home, for family—and they embrace that journey with so much happiness, and curiosity, and weirdness and such a capacity for unconditional love.
Trouble was, to put it simply, an absolute joy to write. At the absolute worst time to be writing.
Trouble in the Stars is partly about that search for home. It’s also about the amazing glory of our galaxy, from the desolate reaches of space, to busy planets, to the singing of the stars. It’s about how deeply weird we all are, no matter what form we happen to inhabit. It’s also about identity. Trouble is, quite literally, fluid—in gender and in shape and in species—and yet somehow they always know exactly who they are. Trouble is Trouble.
Trouble in the Stars is also a really fun adventure. Trouble gets into … well … into a lot of trouble, and has great friends to come along for the ride. So if you like stories about found family, and acceptance, and fun, I hope you’ll join the adventure.
Onward!
Sarah Prineas
It’s about my next book, Trouble in the Stars, which will be published by Philomel, an imprint at Penguin/Random House, in April 2021! I lrrrrrve this book so much, and I hope you will too!
