Cover Reveal: Dear Universe by Florence Gonsalves
Dear Universe, I need you to add Florence Gonsalves’s new novel, Dear Universe, to your TBR—stat. The author of Love & Other Carnivorous Plants returns with another book written in her fresh, witty, memorable voice reminiscent to those of my funniest and smartest friends.
Dear Universe is a deeply profound chronicle of teenage anxiety and yearning—it’s about Chamomile Myles, who has whiplash from traveling between her two universes: school (the relentless countdown to proml, torturous college apps, and the mindless march toward an uncertain future) and home, where she wrestles a slow, bitter battle with her father’s terminal illness. Enter Brendan, a man-bun- and tutu-wearing hospital volunteer with a penchant for absurdity, who strides boldly between her two worlds—and helps her open up a new road between them.
If you’re a fan of LOC&P, then you’ll love Dear Universe because it’s filled with even more laugh-out-loud one liners, memorable characters and relationships, and just the right amount of heart-squeezing emotion. And if you haven’t read LOC&P, don’t worry—now you have double the amount of Florence Gonsalves to read.
Of course, we can’t talk about this book like this without sharing the cover and an excerpt, so feast your eyes on this beauty of a book.
Prologue
October
Days ’til prom: Eons
You know that moment when it happens? And your life goes from one long snore-fart to hell-freaking-yeah? That moment happens for me in, of all places, gym class.
It’s the second month of school and I’m running like a goddamn hero, flag in hand when, “GOTCHA!” someone shouts, ramming into me and tackling me to the ground. They follow up with “Oops, sorry.” It’s two-hand touch.
“It’s okay,” I say, with a mouthful of grass and the weight of another person compressing my lungs. I roll over as the sun is rising over the portable classrooms that are so run-down a raccoon fell through the ceiling our freshman year. I’d just transferred to Gill School then, and all I knew about the place was it had uniforms. Plaid skirts and small mammals with hand-paws? No, thanks. But when you get kicked out of public school, you can’t really be choosy.
“I didn’t hurt you, did I?” the boy asks, and that’s when I get a look at him. He’s wiry, with dark hair and a few pimples and these great bluish-gray eyes that I picture swimming across.
“No, I’m fine,” I say, and I am. I’m still clutching that triangle of highlighter-orange fabric, hardly able to breathe, but I’m better than fine because a boy is finally on top of me.
“Okay, good,” he says, jumping off quickly.
“Come on,” someone from my team calls as they run by. Everyone’s returning to their sides, which means the gym teacher must have blown the whistle, but I didn’t hear it.
“You’re a fast runner,” he says.
“Thanks.” I wipe my brow. “There’s a lot of stuff I can’t let catch up with me.”
He laughs and then we look at each other. You know. Look at each other. Our eyes are like BAM! You’re a body with sex-parts. Let’s get to know each other.
Abigail says she watched the whole thing from jail (she always makes a point to be captured first) and it was a meet-cute like no other.
“I’m Gene-short-for-Eugene Wolf,” he says. “You’re Chamomile, right?”
I nod. “Yep, like the tea, only not as hot.”
He laughs and we walk back to the center of the field, where the team with pinnies (his) is facing the team with stale, wrinkled gym shirts (mine).
“You’re funny,” he says, and I smile. Funny is a new thing for me. Until everything started happening with my dad a few years ago, I didn’t really have to be.
As we walk across the patchy field I try to envision what he sees when he looks at me: long hair that always borders on frizzy, two individually nice but asymmetrical eyebrows, a nose that’s never been pierced. “I was thinking you should come running with me sometime.” He looks over at me and I look back at him, our eyes pleasantly locked.
“I don’t really run,” I say, like the dolt that I am.
“Oh, you should try it.” Then he lists all the reasons: college scholarships, teammates, heart health (which may or may not be true, given that people croak during marathons all the time). “Plus, then we could see more of each other.”
Boom, bang, pop. Heart fireworks. I smile and he grins and Gene-short-for-Eugene Wolf has one of those melting grins that make you heat up, then drip.
“Okay,” I say as the whistle blows and he puts his hands on his knees, facing me with faux competitiveness across the imaginary line we’re about to cross. “I guess I’ll come running with you.”
So we run. He picks me up outside my house before school, while it’s still dark and the birds are black shapes against a sky that’s very slowly starting to lighten. We run all over the place—through the woods, around the ice cream place in town and the drive-in movie theater, and we stop at the playground for a drink of water, and then one time he kisses me there. Our mouths are still wet with water that tastes like a penny died in it.
“Race me?” I say after. I’m breathless because the closest thing I’ve had to being kissed before this was a gross encounter with a really friendly dog at Petco, but from then on we’re a threesome. Not me, Gene, and the dog, but me, Gene, and running. Running before the world even wakes up. Seeing the sun rise over the roofs, like someone making breakfast in the sky, the egg cracking and then light. Over the next few months he shows me something to love, and that’s why it’s so hard later to let him go.
But why do I have let him go, you ask? Because I’m about to be bitch-slapped by the universe.
Dear Universe,
Sorry for interrupting you with my presence, but I'm wondering if you could have my back for once. I recently had a massive chin zit and a period stain you could see from space and my boyfriend kissed someone else and also my dad is dying faster than usual. If you could show up during my last English class so I can graduate and like achieve my potential or something, I'd appreciate it.
It's senior year, and Chamomile Myles has whiplash from traveling between her two universes: school (the relentless countdown to prom, torturous college applications, and the mindless march toward an uncertain future) and home, where she wrestles a slow, bitter battle with her father's terminal illness. Enter Brendan, a man-bun- and tutu-wearing hospital volunteer with a penchant for absurdity, who strides boldly between her worlds—and helps her open up a new road between them.
Dear Universe is the dazzling follow-up to Florence Gonsalves's debut, Love & Other Carnivorous Plants, hailed by School Library Journal as "a must-have sharp, powerful, and witty immersion into the complexities of...mental health."