'Exceptional...a careful, thoughtful, compulsively readable examination of toxic masculinity and normalised sexual abuse." - The Guardian
Shortlisted for the Yoto Carnegie Medal for Writing, 2023
Longlisted for the Branford Boase Award 2023
Shortlisted for The Badger Books Award 2023
Shortlisted for the Great Reads Award 2022
Kirkus Prize finalist 2023
You’re caught in a time loop and there’s only one way out. You have to call out your best friend.
Wake up. Friday. Clara Hart hits my car. Go to class. Anthony rates the girls. House party. Anthony goes upstairs with Clara. Drink. Clara dies. Wake up. Friday again. Clara Hart hits my car. Why can’t I break this loop?
It’s Friday and Spence wakes up to Clara Hart, a classmate, crashing into the back of his car.
At school Spence hangs out with his friends Anthony and Worm. They talk about the girls, rating them out of five stars. Later, Anthony hosts a house party – his parties are notorious. Clara Hart is there, drinking like the rest of them, dancing wildly. Spence goes upstairs. Anthony and Worm are in one of the bedrooms. Spence sees Clara Hart passed out on the bed. Next he sees Clara run down the stairs and straight out into the road. A car hits her and she dies.
The next day begins like the one before: Spence wakes again to Clara Hart banging into the back of his car. Soon it becomes clear that it is Friday again and that the party will happen, again. This time can Spence make sure Clara Hart doesn’t die? He fails. The day repeats again and again. Eventually Spence realises that this day isn’t really about Clara. It’s about him and his friends. And they’re all implicated in Clara’s death. Now, the cycle can end.