Talking About the Hard Stuff: A conversation with authors Anastasia Zadeik and JJ Elliott

Dear friends and fellow readers,

In the decade between 2011 and 2021, 13% of teen girls attempted suicide, and 30% seriously considered it. By 2018, suicide had become the second-leading cause of death among youth aged 10 to 24. Despite its prevalence among both youth and adults, suicide, and the mental distress behind it, aren’t well-represented in fiction. Anastasia Zadeik’s debut novel, The Other Side of Nothing, out at the end of May, is a compelling and needed new voice.

I am thrilled to announce the next To the Lighthouse author event:

TALKING ABOUT THE HARD STUFF

WHY WE NEED AUTHENTIC PERSPECTIVES ON MENTAL HEALTH IN FICTION

A conversation with

Anastasia Zadeik

award-winning author of the novel The Other Side of Nothing

and

JJ Elliott

bestselling and award-winning author of the novel There Are No Rules for This

6:30-8:00PM PT, Sunday, June 30, 2024

The BookWorks Bookstore, 667 Lighthouse Ave, Pacific Grove CA

or register to participate virtually via Zoom

In The Other Side of Nothing, Julia Reeves checks herself into a psychiatric facility the day after her eighteenth birthday, longing to find a way out of the grief and guilt that have engulfed her since her father’s untimely death. What she finds is fellow suicide attempt survivor Sam Lorenzo, a brilliant twenty-three-year-old photographer. Sam brings beauty and light back into Julia’s life, so when he asks her to escape with him on a cross-country odyssey, she agrees. Before Julia can process what she’s done, the two young lovers are on the run.

Zadeik will be in conversation with JJ Elliott, whose bestselling novel There Are No Rules For This begins with the suicide of Feeney, a wife and mother of two, and progresses through its aftershocks.

Both novels draw readers into deeply affecting stories of those at the precipice of suicide and the family and friends trying to make sense of their choices.

Tickets include signed copies of one or both books.

I hope to see you there!

Yours in all things literary,

Jennifer