The Alienation of Courtney Hoffman: A Novel

by Brady Stefani

Overview

Fifteen-year-old Courtney wants to be normal like her friends. But there’s something frighteningly different about her—and it’s not just the mysterious tattoo her conspiracy-obsessed grandfather marked her with when she was a child. The last thing Courtney wants to do is end up crazy and dead like her grandfather—but what about the tattoo? And the alien scouts who visit Courtney in her bedroom at night, claiming to have shared an alliance with her grandfather? With her new friend Agatha’s apocalyptic visions, Courtney begins connecting the dots between the past, present, and future—of her bloodline, and the ancient history that surrounds it. So is she going mentally insane, like her family claimed her grandfather did, or is she actually a “chosen one” with ancestral connections to another world? Either way, Courtney has a mission: untangle her past, discover the truth, and stop the apocalypse before anyone from school finds out she’s missing.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781940716350
Publisher:	SparkPress
Publication date:	06/07/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	322
File size:	3 MB
Age Range:	12 - 18 Years

About the Author

Brady G. Stefani has a bachelor's degree in creative writing, and a graduate degree in law. During law school, he spent time as an involuntary commitment caseworker for the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health, where he interacted with patients suffering from severe thought disorders, including numerous patients presenting with subjectively real memories of being visited and abducted by alien beings (commonly referred to as alien abduction phenomenon). It was through his study of these patients, along with his own struggles with anxiety and cognition, that Stefani became aware of just how deceiving, mysterious, and powerfully resilient the human mind can be. After law school, Stefani wrote and directed a feature film, The Wind Cried Larry, which received honorable mentions at the East Lansing Film Festival. In addition to working on a second YA novel that continues the storyline from The Alienation of Courtney Hoffman, Stefani continues to write YA fiction for his website, exploring issues of mental health in the context of our boundary-less imaginations.

Editorial Reviews

2017 Independent Press Awards Distinguished Favorites: Science Fiction 2017 Independent Press Awards: New Fiction (First Time Published), Winner 2016 New Apple Annual Book Awards for Excellence in Independent Publishing: Young Adult Science Fiction Medalist Winner Next Generation Indie Book Awards 2016: Finalist in the First Novel category Readers’ Favorite Awards 2016: Finalist in Young Adult Fiction
"If you love Stranger Things, read The Alienation of Courtney Hoffman." —Elle magazine
"A must-read sci-fi book" —Hypable
“Chock-full of sharp tonal contrast . . . This debut novel fuses a serious issue—the stigma of mental illness—with sci-fi to chronicle a girl’s unusual coming of age.” —Kirkus Reviews
"This novel has a breakneck pace and Stefani's writing is fluid and perfectly suited to this most extraordinary tale that blends the coming of age, adventure, science fiction, and post-apocalyptic genres—and it all works beautifully." —Readers' Favorite, Five Stars
“Brady G. Stefani’s The Alienation of Courtney Hoffman finds a way to thread together a fast-paced young adult novel feel with a substantive agenda. Stefani’s storytelling skills and elegantly simple language immediately get you involved in an emotional, suspenseful, off-balance reading experience that is equal parts drama and science fiction.” —Ian Kahl, author of Anxiety is a Rambling Dagger, and That Faraway Place
"Beyond our everyday world there lies the alternative reality of childhood, a universe populated by strange beings and powered by our collective imaginations. The Alienation of Courtney Hoffman is a doorway for readers of all ages that returns us to that world from which so many have become disconnected. Brady G. Stefani's ability to connect us to that larger, weirder reality is a gift from an ever-changing, ultimately unknowable cosmos." —John E. L. Tenney, Paranormal Researcher
"Stefani’s The Alienation of Courtney Hoffman is a thought-provoking and emotional journey through a young girl’s mind as she struggles to understand who she is, where she came from, and who she is supposed to be—all while deciphering between reality and the tricks our minds can sometimes play on us. Stefani beautifully demonstrates how difficult life can be for anyone who thinks or acts a little differently, and reminds us that, more often than not, the things that terrify us the most are the things trying to save us." —Jessica Stevens, author of Within Reach
“As the father of two teenage girls, I can tell you that Brady Stefani must have some sort of supernatural helmet that helps him think and write in their language. But The Alienation of Courtney Hoffman is much more than a novel for teens. This fast-paced adventure kept my attention, blazing back-and-forth from reality to an alter-world so close by that it’s creepy. Here’s a page-turner that captures a lot about childhood struggles through an imaginative story filled with surprises.” —Jim Schaefer, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and writer for the Detroit Free Press
"Brady Stefani has written a wonderful coming-of-age tale of an adolescent girl who is struggling to grasp what is real and what is not real. While conveying the actual inner experience of an adolescent is a difficult task, because of the unconscious and incomprehensible facets of the mind, Stefani uses a scientific metaphor to accurately convey the demands, perils, and triumphs of adolescence that must be traversed to become an adult. With The Alienation of Courtney Hoffman, Stefani has achieved an important literary form that will be of interest to adolescent and adult readers alike." —Melvin Bornstein, M.D., Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Wayne State University, Training and Supervising Analyst at Michigan Psychoanalytical Institute, and editor of Psychoanalytic Inquiry

From the Publisher

2016-06-10
A debut novel fuses a serious issue—the stigma of mental illness—with sci-fi to chronicle a girl's unusual coming-of-age. On the surface, Courtney Hoffman seems like an average 15-year-old girl: she holds down a decently high spot in the high school hierarchy, serving as vice captain of the soccer team. But she also experiences nightmares stemming from when her now-dead grandfather, who believed in aliens, supposedly tried to drown her. Turns out, these aren't dreams after all—aliens visit Courtney at night, trying to communicate with her ("Slowly I cracked my eyes open. Silhouetted in the light were three alien creatures. Their long, lanky bodies shuffled awkwardly toward my bed. This isn't supposed to be happening!"). But how can she figure out what they want when her mother keeps threatening to lock her up in a psychiatric hospital? With the help of an older girl named Agatha Kirlich, who possesses an extravagant goth wardrobe, and a brother who is also visited by the aliens, Courtney uncovers clues that lead her to an ancient group known as the Knights of the Magi. Courtney's destiny lies with the Knights and their quest to keep the dangerous pathways between universes closed off—but their mortal enemies, the Soldiers of Bilim, are determined to stop her from fulfilling it. Stefani takes readers along on a wild ride through portals to other worlds that delivers plenty of amusing adolescent dialogue; Courtney and Agatha's interactions crackle with chemistry and eccentricity. In contrast to these funny moments, the earlier parts of the book, before Courtney realizes the aliens are real—when she legitimately believes that she is losing her mind—are pretty dark. The character of Courtney's mom is unsympathetic and cruel to the point of feeling like a coldhearted cartoon; she treats her daughter's potential mental illness as an inconvenience that must be forcibly submerged by Courtney or she'll be shuttered in an institution as punishment. Once Courtney's conflict with her mother takes a back seat to her escapades with Agatha and the aliens, the plot picks up speed and becomes a lot more enjoyable. Chock-full of sharp tonal contrasts, this tale should appeal to readers with a hunger for alien adventure and an understanding of how it feels to be considered crazy.

Kirkus Reviews