Kitty Kilby

The Oyster’s Autobiography by Kitty Kilby

Shy girls don’t yarn-bomb the school fence at dawn, and they definitely don’t skip school to hang out with Patrick Hayes—student council president, football vice-captain (and president of his own fan club).

But then, best friends don’t usually resort to blackmail.

Fifteen-year-old Mabs is the shadow to Olivia’s sun. That’s how it’s always been. But when Olivia goes on a semester-long exchange to France, Mabs can no longer hide behind her best friend.

When a letter arrives, postmarked Paris, the last thing Mabs expects is a blackmail letter. And unless she completes the enclosed list of dares by the time Olivia gets home, Olivia will send the love poem she stole from Mabs’s diary to the boy it was written about.

What’s even worse than the possibility of Rob Eno (her way too easily decipherable codename for the former object of her affections) seeing that poem, or her best friend thinking that she’s a friendless recluse who needs to be blackmailed into getting a life, is having to admit it just might be true.

After a few humiliating attempts, Mabs realises the only way she’s ever going to get the list finished in time is to enlist the help of an extrovert. Enter Patrick Hayes—her brother’s pain-in-the-neck best friend.

The ultimate extrovert, he might be the only one who can help Mabs finish the list, and step out of Olivia’s shadow.

THE OYSTER’S AUTOBIOGRAPHY is a contemporary young adult novel complete at 72,000 words.

 

The Book Doctors:

From the first sentence, this is a terrific pitch:  “Shy girls don’t yarn-bomb the school fence at dawn.”   It’s got a great style to it.  It shows us what the voice of the book is going to be like–fun and entertaining. There is also danger and contradiction and panache and the foreshadowing of bad things to come.  We immediately get a sense of the story here, and we do fall in love with our heroine.  We would like to know a little bit more about what she wants to do with Patrick Hayes, and more of a sense of how this list takes her outside her comfort zone. But you have convinced us you are a talented writer who knows how to create characters and make a story. And you’ve got a great title, too!