Catch & Release

by Blythe Woolston

Overview

I should have died quick. But I didn't. I'm a miracle of modern medicine, only the medicine doesn't get much credit, I notice. People say I'm lucky, or I'm blessed, and then they turn away.

I'm not the only miracle. There's Odd too.

Polly Furnas had The Plan for the future. Get married to Bridger Morgan, for one. College, career, babies. Etc. All the important choices were made.

It was all happily-ever-after as a diamond-ring commercial.

But The Plan did not include a lethal drug-resistant infection. It did not include “some more reconstruction and scar revision in the future." And it certainly did not include Odd Estes, a trip to Portland in an ancient Cadillac to "tear Bridger a new one," fly fishing, marshmallows, Crisco, or a loaded gun.

But plans change. Stories get revised and new choices must be made.

Polly and Odd have choices. Surviving or not. Catch or release.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781467731942
Publisher:	Lerner Publishing Group
Publication date:	08/01/2013
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	216
File size:	1 MB
Age Range:	14 - 17 Years

About the Author

Blythe Woolston is a reader. Right now, she makes her living indexing scholarly books. She has also worked as a writing teacher, library clerk, and production coordinator for a computer book publisher. Writing books is a new way for her to love reading.

Editorial Reviews

When 18-year-old Polly reflects on the idea that what doesn’t kill one makes one stronger, she’s not thinking about herself. She’s referring to a local staph outbreak that killed five people and maimed two, including Polly. “It ate my eye and part of my cheekbone. It left behind a mess of bumpy pink scars that twists the corner of my mouth up on one side like I’m a half-finished Joker.” Her future plans (and her former boyfriend) now belong to the “Polly-That-Was,” and she spends her days watching TV until she hears from fellow survivor Odd Estes, who lost a leg to the infection. A fishing trip in his old Cadillac becomes a road trip to Portland, Ore., as Polly tries to understand the twist of fate that has scarred her inside and out, while she attempts to keep an erratic Odd in check. Morris Award–winner Woolston (The Freak Observer) forces readers to re-evaluate life’s random cruelties and the idea of “survival,” as she brings her characters to the brink of death, then tosses them back in the water. Ages 14–up. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

"Polly Furnas, 18, and Odd Estes, 17, both disfigured survivors of a MRSA outbreak, feel rejected in their small Montana town. Both had typical teenage dreams for their futures, only to find themselves unlikely friends bonded by the infection. Odd, who lost a leg, invites Polly on a road trip, promising adventure and lots of fishing. Polly, wanting to get away from her mom and to escape the rejection she feels because of her facial disfigurement, opts to go along. While readers might hope for plenty of action, there is very little, leading to a character-driven novel with no plot. Odd is an unlikable character who eases his pain with medicinal marijuana and carries a gun. Polly and Odd are honest teens with strong opinions. Their interactions are interesting, but some readers will have trouble connecting with either one of them. Mature teens who finish the story will see that this is a novel about acceptance and moving on when life throws a curveball." —School Library Journal

From the Publisher

Eighteen-year-old Polly recounts her road trip with Odd, a fellow survivor of the disease that killed five others from their small town, in D'Elegance, his Gramma's old baby-blue Cadillac. Fishing is ostensibly the purpose of their outing, and it symbolically charts the way the two teens process their disabilities. Polly once had a boyfriend and a sense of a normal future, and she now calls her former self "Polly-That-Was," since Bridger has vanished with the disfigurement of her face and loss of an eye from MRSA, or Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Odd Estes lost a foot as well as some football buddies, and although the two barely knew each other before, they both now struggle to accommodate their good fortune in surviving and their misfortune of disability. Swearing, booze and weed are along for the journey, which takes them from their hometown somewhere near Yellowstone toward Portland, Ore. Neither teen is particularly articulate, but Polly's first-person narration is as snarky and devastatingly honest as she is. Odd and Polly move from isolation to a mutual connection that helps them deal with their pain. This is not a romance, but a tale of two people thrown together after their world has been turned upside down. Each is unique, vividly complicated and true. Engaging writing and characters lift this above the typical clichéd story of disabled teen. Heartbreakingly honest. (Fiction. 14 & up)

Kirkus Reviews