Book Promo: Post-High School Reality Quest by Meg Eden

Post-High School Reality Quest

by Meg Eden

Publisher: Rare Bird Books

Release Date: June 13, 2017 (Yesterday!)

Genre: Young Adult

Synopsis:
Buffy is playing a game. However, the game is her life, and there are no instructions or cheat codes on how to win.
After graduating high school, a voice called “ the text parser” emerges in Buffy’s head, narrating her life as a classic text adventure game. Buffy figures this isjust a manifestation of her shy, awkward, nerdy nature—until the voice doesn’t go away, and instead begins to dominate her thoughts, telling her how to life her life. Though Buffy tries tobeat the game, crash it, and even restart it, it becomes clear that this game is not something she can simply “ shut off” or beat without the text parser’s help.
While the text parser tries to give Buffy advice on how “ towinthe game,” Buffy decides to pursue her own game-plan: start over, make new friends, and win her long-time crush Tristan’s heart. But even when Buffy gets the guy ofher dreams, the game doesn’t stop. In fact, it gets worse than she could’ve ever imagined: her crumbling group offriends fall apart, her roommate turns against her, and Buffy finds herself trying to survive in a game built off her greatest nightmares.

Teaser:

The door opens.“ Hello, Elizabeth.”

“Buffy.”

“Sorry, Buffy. I’m Dr. Moritz, I’m here to check in and see what’ s going on. I hear that something’s been bothering you. Could you tell me what’s been going on?”

“I’m not crazy. I didn’t mean to do anything—I just wanted to get away.”

“Your mother says that before you ran away, you asked to stop living on campus. Could you tell me if something happened to lead up to yesterday’s incident?”

Where to start?

“It was getting hard to be around people.”

“Your mother mentioned that your father heard you talking to yourself, that you talked about trying to ‘cut it out.’ Do you know what that was referring to?”

“The game. There’s a game stuck inside of me.”

“A game? Well that’s a first for me. But I suppose stress can manifest itself in all sorts of ways. Do you think this ‘game’ could be like that, a way to handle stress?”

A shrug.

“ I see. So when was the first time you started 'playing’ this game?”

>Load: High School Graduation

Meg Eden's work has been published in various magazines, including Rattle, Drunken Boat, Poet Lore, and Gargoyle. She teaches at the University of Maryland. She has four poetry chap-books, and her novel "Post-High School Reality Quest" is forthcoming from California Cold-blood, an imprint of Rare Bird Lit. Check out her work at: www.megedenbooks.com