Tune in Anytime

by Caroline B. Cooney Narrated by Christina Moore

Overview

This day has been absolutely perfect for 16-year-old Sophie Olivette. She got an A+ on her first speech ever, whipped the history exam, and played awesome field hockey. She can hardly wait to tell Dad. But after school, he has an announcement of his own: he has found a new true love and is divorcing Mother. Suddenly Sophie feels like she is the only grown-up in the house. Dad's girlfriend is a younger woman-in fact, she is Sophie's older sister's roommate at college. And Mother is too busy seeking her "Inner Self" to work on her failing marriage. Sophie's life becomes an endless soap opera with one heartbreaking episode after another, and she can't change channels. Award-winning author Caroline B. Cooney captivates young adults with her absorbing novels including The Face on the Milk Carton and Whatever Happened to Janie? Narrator Christina Moore underscores Sophie's outrage and hope as she struggles to rewrite her family's story to end "happily ever after."

Editorial Reviews

VOYA

The writing rings true....There is a strong sense of place...Most teens feel helpless at times and will certainly identify with this novel.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Cooney (The Face on the Milk Carton) offers lighter fare than her usual thrillers with this intermittently engaging satire. Sophie Olivette bills her life as a soap opera: "There are probably many ways to break into soap operas, but one way, Sophie discovered, is just to stand there. As your parents lose their minds, their sense and their money, you will be the star," the story begins. The comparison is no exaggeration. Sophie's father has decided to marry Sophie's older sister's roommate, a college freshman; Sophie's mother, a New Age sort, spends her time at a gravel pit communing with stones, thinking of them as a latter-day Stonehenge. All Sophie can think of to retaliate is a hare-brained scheme involving the bulldozing of her own architecturally prestigious house, so that her father will not get the lucrative proceeds from his planned sale and will therefore not be able to finance his cushy life with wife No. 2. The dialogue is snappy, the narrative is full of pithy summaries of Sophie's feelings, and Mr. and Mrs. Olivette are clearly ridiculous, but Cooney doesn't get readers to laugh much. As tuned in as ever to her teen protagonists' feelings, she makes Sophie's pain and outrage feel all too real--a verisimilitude that doesn't sit well with farce. Ages 12-up. (Sept.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

School Library Journal

Gr 7 Up-Sophie Olivette is about to be cast in a nightmarish soap opera filled with betrayal, angst, destruction, and lust. Unfortunately, the soap opera is not a television series; it is this teen's life. Her father announces to the family that he is filing for divorce in order to marry his older daughter's college roommate. The betrayal goes further as Sophie's mother flatly refuses to do anything about the situation-she is far too busy trying to find her inner self. The story continues to spiral out of control as both parents repeatedly abdicate their responsibilities. Cooney creates strong characters that draw readers into the action. The overriding sense of chaos and helplessness that Sophie feels is present on every page as the adults in her life throw her world into upheaval. There are bits of humor thrown in, along with a touch of romance, to balance the serious nature of the story. The author writes effectively for this audience and provides a hopeful ending. Sophie gracefully weathers the storm and learns that "survival [is] the act of reaching the last episode." An engaging read that is sure to be swept off the shelves.-Elaine Baran, Gwinnett County Public Library, Lawrenceville, GA Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Cooney (Burning Up, 1999, etc.) puts a family into a downward spiral and plants funny, rueful Sophie Olivette at its unquiet center to observe and comment. Her father's sudden announcement that he's getting married is the stuff of soap opera to Sophie; he has a perfectly good wife and two daughters already, whom he's willing to set aside without a thought in order to marry gorgeous, half-his-age Persia, college roommate of Sophie's older sister, Marley. His betrayals continue when he announces that he is going to sell their beautiful home and everything in it so he and Persia can travel the globe. What of Sophie's mother? She's so busy pursuing spiritual matters that she hardly seems to comprehend what's happening. Marley is still safely away at college, more interested in her new doctor boyfriend than in her family's imminent destruction. Only Sophie's solid, stolid classmate Ted recognizes her turmoil and agrees to help her stop her father before it is too late. This is a riotously funny novel, full of unique characters, and sly, unexpected plot turns, but underneath all the comedy is a real story of real people caught up in a rotten situation that is growing worse every minute. Cooney puts the characters through their paces with jaw-dropping alacrity, as they try to cope in the face of nearly insuperable odds. It's a modern morality play that is full of humor, and never belies its sudsy origins. (Fiction. 12-14)

Product Details

BN ID:	2940171081447
Publisher:	Recorded Books, LLC
Publication date:	11/15/2013
Edition description:	Unabridged

Read an Excerpt

How to star in a soap opera.

There are probably many ways to break into soap operas, but one way, Sophie discovered, is just to stand there. As your parents lose their minds, their sense and their money, you will be the star. The one around whom all the action pivots. This will be a show you cannot quit. A script you cannot rewrite. You will be stuck on the set, surrounded by bad lines and bad actors. Every morning, you will say, “No more episodes! End this!”

But in a soap opera, there is always another episode.

By the time Sophie Olivette realized that she was a star in her own soap, the action had been going on for some time. She just hadn’t had the TV on. Or she’d been watching some other channel.

It was as if Sophie’s father walked in, grabbed the remote and turned up the volume.

Chapter 1

Sophie loved the sound of her father in the house, and when she heard him bounding up the stairs, she hopped off the bed where she and Jem and Ash were sitting to paint each other’s nails. She had so much to tell him. It had been the kind of school day where everything explodes—Sophie had whipped the history exam, given her first ever speech (without even throwing up), been awesome in field hockey, and now she had incredible fingertips.

The carpeting on the stair and the upper hall was thick and nubbly. It had muffled the sound of a second pair of feet.

Sophie grabbed the doorjamb to stop her momentum. She could not fling herself on top of her father, nor order him to sit quietly and listen to her brilliant three-minute A-plus speech. His arms were full, and he was the one about to deliver aspeech.

No, thought Sophie. Please, no.

She was not addressing her father, but some Power that ought to protect marriage.

But her father was bursting. “Sophie!” he cried joyfully. “Persia and I,” he told his daughter, “are getting married.”

Jem and Ash were still holding their fingers stiffly and separately, like children about to trace around their hands. They sat on the bed, right behind Sophie, and heard every word and saw every gesture.

Sophie would never forgive Dad for telling her in front of people, leaving her nowhere to move. There was no way to make up her own version. No way to pretend it wasn’t happening and didn’t matter. She could not call her sister and talk it through, or pick up a brick and throw it at Dad and hope he was scarred for life.

Sophie tried to stare her father down, but he was not looking at her. He had not looked at her in weeks. He saw only Persia.

How quickly it had happened. As fast as a computer crashing, that fast had her parents’ marriage gone down.

Only two months before, Sophie’s happily married parents had been proud and nervous: their older daughter, Marley, was going off to college.

Marley was one of those capable, competent people who stride across rooms and life and get what they want on the first try, mostly by stepping on other people. Sharing a life, a house and a high school with Marley was exhausting. That last week of summer, when Mother and Dad drove away with Marley and her million possessions, Sophie had twirled around the empty house, clapping and yelling, “Marley’s not here!” and then falling down on her bed laughing.

Life without Marley! It was a beautiful thought.

At college, however, Marley faced a problem. She was assigned a roommate. Marley was not a roommate kind of person. People who must get their own way are difficult to live with in a space ten feet by twelve feet.

The only kind of roommate that would have worked for Marley would have been the submissive, doormat kind. The kind who said, “Oh, Marley, please let me fold your laundry too.”

Instead, Marley got Persia, who was a few years older, having been a model before starting college. Marley, sharpened by years of bickering with her sister, expected to control Persia.

And what had Persia expected? A regular old freshman year?

Sophie could have asked, but she and Persia were not on speaking terms. Only Sophie knew this, because Persia had a great capacity for not noticing other people’s emotions. Persia was untouched by irritation or anger or even homicidal threats.

In any event, after only ten days of college, Marley decided to come home for the weekend. Invoking some ancient rule that roomies could always go home with roommates, Persia came too.

The rest was history.

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