Boldly weird, cool, and confident, this YA novel of LGBTQ+ teen artists, activists, and telepathic visionaries offers hope against climate and community destruction. From the National Book Award–longlisted author of Out of Salem.
James Goldman, self-described neurotic goth gay transsexual stoner, is a senior in high school, and fully over it. He mostly ignores his classes at Cow Pie High, instead focusing on fundraising for the near-bankrupt local LGBTQ+ youth support group, Compton House, and attending punk shows with his friend-crush Ian and best friend Opal. But when James falls in love with Orsino, a homeschooled trans boy with telepathic powers and visions of the future, he wonders if the scope of what he believes possible is too small. Orsino, meanwhile, hopes that in James he has finally found someone who will be able to share the apocalyptic visions he has had to keep to himself, and better understand the powers they hold.
How to Get Over the End of the World confirms Hal Schrieve as a unique and to-be-celebrated voice in LGBTQ+ YA fiction with this multi-voiced story about flawed people trying their hardest to make a better world, about the beauty and craziness of hope, about too-big dreams and reality checks, and about the ways in which human messiness — egos, jealousy, insecurity — and good faith can coexist. It also about preserving the ties within a chosen family — and maybe saving the world — through love, art, and acts of resistance.
Cover art by Casey Nowak
Collected in
LGBTQ Liberation - More than just Pride Month
HAL SCHRIEVE grew up in Olympia, Washington, and has never met a werewolf. Xie has worked as an after-school group leader, a summer camp counselor, a flower seller, a tutor, a grocer, and a babysitter. Hal has had poetry in Vetch magazine, and is featured in Stacked Deck Press's 2018 trans comics anthology We're Still Here. Hal earned hir Master's in Library Science from Queen's College and works as a Children's Librarian at New York Public Library. Out of Salem, hir debut novel, received starred reviews from Kirkus and Publisher's Weekly and was longlisted for the National Book Award for Young People's Literature. Hal lives in Brooklyn.
