The Baddest Girl on the Planet

by Heather Frese

Overview

Until now, Outer Banks native Evie Austin has been the baddest girl on the planet. What comes next?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781949467161
Publisher:	Blair
Publication date:	03/02/2021
Pages:	250
Sales rank:	703,812
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 7.40(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Heather Frese’s fiction, essays, and poetry have appeared in Michigan Quarterly Review, the Los Angeles Review, Front Porch, the Barely South Review, Switchback, and elsewhere, earning notable mention in the Pushcart Prize Anthology and Best American Essays. She received her master’s degree from Ohio University and her M.F.A. from West Virginia University. Coastal North Carolina is her longtime love and source of inspiration, her writing deeply influenced by the wild magic and history of the Outer Banks. She currently writes, edits, and wrangles three small children in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Table of Contents

1 Kid Dynamite, 2013 1

2 Evolution of a Bad Girl 19

3 Part Spell, Part Séance, Part Prayer, 1999 21

4 Dominican Al's Once-in-a-Lifetime Honeymoon Extravaganza, Sponsored by Dominican Al's Rum and Fine Spirits, 2014 49

5 The Big Book of Funeral Etiquette, 2015 67

6 Bad Dog 83

7 Postpartum, 2009 85

8 Women My Brother Has Loved, 2017 101

9 Like an Eagle, a Real One, 2016 131

10 An Open Letter to Patricia Ballance, 2008 155

11 For His Part, 2018 175

12 Into the Neon, 2016 199

13 How to Stay, How to Go, 2019 215

Editorial Reviews

01/25/2021

Frese debuts with an impressive examination of small-town island life in coastal North Carolina. In 2013, 23-year-old Evie Austin is dissatisfied with her underachieving husband, Stephen Oden, and a year later Evie and Stephen are divorced, with Evie and their five-year-old son living in her parents’ house. The author intercuts Evie’s negotiation of single life with Evie’s memories of growing up on the island, where, at nine, she met her childhood bestie, vacationer Charlotte McConnell. As the narrative progresses, Frese toggles through the years to reveal experiences that have defined Evie’s life, among them an unplanned pregnancy at 19 with her high school sweetheart; a strange obsession with Mike Tyson, whom she met while visiting Charlotte in Ohio (“the first man to disappoint” her, after his rape conviction); and an ill-advised trip to Las Vegas with a male pen pal. As the narrative builds to the present day, Evie is faced with the choice to reconcile with Stephen or take a chance on new love. While some of the conceits feel a bit too quirky (“Bad girls make up lots of lies. Sometimes accidentally. Sometimes on purpose,” Evie pronounces, reflecting on her youth), Frese’s dynamic structure and strong voice provide engaging snapshots of Evie throughout the years. Readers will find lots to love. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

WINNER of the LEE SMITH NOVEL PRIZE

"Frese debuts with an impressive examination of small-town island life in coastal North Carolina...dynamic structure and strong voice...Readers will find lots to love."—Publishers Weekly

“This sun-and-salt-kissed coming-of-age story reads like a wry, honest chat with a close friend.” —Jaclyn Fulwood, Shelf Awareness

“Frese’s debut is a snappy novel with a relatable character that will resonate with readers.”—LynnDee Wathen, Booklist

"The Baddest Girl on the Planet is set on an island known as the 'Graveyard of the Atlantic' for all the shipwrecks it’s caused, which feels just right: the novel is about, among other things, the islands—both literal and metaphorical—where we feel stranded; the wrecks we cause or find ourselves marooned by. In The Baddest Girl on the Planet, Heather Frese explores some of the most tender spots of what it is to be human: how to come to terms with our choices, how to grow and change in a place that seems to want us to stay the same, and what it means to call a place (or another person) home." —Maggie Smith, author of Keep Moving and Good Bones

"Heather Frese has written a coming-of-age story like no other—with a fiercely original narrative voice that's funny, brave, honest, and occasionally terrifying . . . in fact, compulsively readable!" —Lee Smith, author of Blue Marlin and The Last Girls

”Heather Frese’s The Baddest Girl on the Planet is an absolute knockout about seeing the ruts in the road of life and choosing to drive another way. Evie’s story is hilarious, edgy, heartwarming, and true—you’ll cheer for her at every turn and commiserate with her when things go wrong. There are unforgettable scenes involving a terrorizing Yorkshire Terrier, a postpartum chapter that was so vivid I had to remind myself my kids aren’t babies anymore, and, of course, Mike Tyson. I read this book in one sitting and loved every minute!” —Elizabeth Chiles Shelburne, author of Holding On To Nothing

"In Heather Frese's novel, The Baddest Girl on the Planet, we meet Evie. Smart and sassy Evie. I loved this book. I loved its humor and its compassion. I loved the beautiful portrayal of North Carolina's Outer Banks. Most of all, I loved Evie. Rarely have I found a narrator so compulsively readable and identifiable, yet endlessly compelling in her complexity. Heather Frese has written a book that will break your heart, then put it back together into startling wholeness." —Kelly Sundberg, author of Goodbye, Sweet Girl

From the Publisher