Together We Will Go

February 1, 2021

In Bly's Lizzie & Dante, a Shakespearean scholar heads to Italy after an ugly breakup and an end-of-the-road health diagnosis and meets a handsome chef--but is this any time to start a relationship? In debuter Christie's The Rehearsals, Megan Givens and Tom Prescott plan to call off their wedding after a calamitous rehearsal dinner but wake up the next morning in a time loop, endlessly repeating the event until maybe they get it right (100,000-copy first printing). Clancy's Shoulder Season reveals what happens when shy young church organist Sherri Taylor switches paths after her parents' death to become a Playboy bunny (100,000-copy first printing). The New York Times best-selling Guillory's While We Were Dating features Ben Stephens, Theo's brother from The Wedding Party, who's trying to stay strictly professional while working with a famous actress. In Macomber's stand-alone It's Better This Way, Julia Jones has sold her business, moved into a condominium, and put her marital breakup behind her, but she isn't looking for love--until handsome resident Heath comes along. In Island Queen, romance writer Riley goes mainstream historical to reimagine the life of Dorothy Kirwan Thomas, who rose from enslavement to become a rich and powerful landowner in the colonial West Indies (100,000-copy first printing). Pretty Little Liars author Shepard's Safe in My Arms stars three out-of-the-loop moms who try to discover why the principal of the children's elite California preschool was attacked. If you've got Nine Lives, take this journey with Steel from Chicago and Paris to London and Monaco. In Hugo/Bradbury/Eisner winner Straczynski's latest, an unsuccessful young writer pulls together a crew of equally disaffected folks, buys an old bus, and proclaims Together We Will Go--straight to California, where they will then drive off a cliff (100,000-copy first printing). In debuter Yoder's one-of-a-kind Nightbitch, a woman who's convinced that she is turning into a dog ferrets out answers in A Field Guide to Magical Women and links up with a group of mothers with their own secret persuasions. Optioned for film.

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May 24, 2021
A crew of strangers embark on a suicide mission in screenwriter Straczynski’s disappointing debut. After failed novelist Mark Antonelli’s latest rejection, he decides suicide is an ideal vehicle for creation and places an online ad inviting others to board a bus destined for a nosedive off a California cliff. Twelve struggling souls agree to join up and sign Mark’s release form: each rider must “be serious about killing yourself... no tourists or last-minute backsies,” and also agree to “upload to the WiFi hotspot on the bus, and periodically update it.” While the reasons for choosing suicide vary, the characters are all one-dimensional. Karen is plagued by mysterious body pains; Tyler is a kind coder suffering from a fatal disease; Lisa is a hard-partying bipolar maniac; Vaughn is a geriatric 66-year-old filled with remorse; Shanelle is a young, overweight misfit. But rather than explore each character’s tortuous decision, the narrative is propelled by a ridiculous chase as the folks on the bus evade authorities to accomplish their mission. Though Straczynski’s odd conceit has the makings of black comedy, it mostly crashes and burns.

Starred review from July 1, 2021
Straczynski, the creator of the seminal sf television series, Babylon 5, and the author of a memoir, graphic novels, and a writing guide, dives into novel-writing with this provocative tale of 12 people who band together to take a cross-country road trip that will culminate with their collective suicide. This fatal journey is the brainchild of Mark Antonelli, a suicidal writer chafing under the thumb of his critical father. Mark buys an old tour bus and hires a formidable army vet to drive it from Florida to San Francisco, where Mark and those he picks up along the way will drive the bus over a cliff. Among the people who sign up for this final adventure are Karen, whose chronic pain makes her life unbearable; Vaughn, a widower who feels that he's squandered his life; Shanelle, the victim of vicious bullying over her weight; and Tyler, whose fatal heart condition has turned his skin blue. It turns out to be far from a grim trip as they all find much-needed kinship, celebrate their lives, and even run afoul of the law. The plot may make Straczynski's first novel controversial; certainly it's a conversation starter, and there's no denying that it is compulsively readable, replete with compelling characters, surprising twists, and heady themes.

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