A Short History of the Girl Next Door

Equal parts hilarious and heartbreaking, this unrequited-love story will appeal to fans of Jennifer Niven, John Green, and Jesse Andrews.

Seriously, how can you see a person nearly every day of your life and never think a thing of it, then all of a sudden, one day, it's different? You see that goofy grin a thousand times and just laugh. But goofy grin #1,001 nearly stops your heart?

Right. That sounds like a bad movie already.

Matt Wainwright is constantly sabotaged by the overdramatic movie director in his head. He can't tell his best friend, Tabby, how he really feels about her, he implodes on the JV basketball team, and the only place he feels normal is in Mr. Ellis's English class, discussing the greatest fart scenes in literature and writing poems about pissed-off candy-cane lumberjacks.

If this were a movie, everything would work out perfectly. Tabby would discover that Matt's madly in love with her, be overcome with emotion, and fall into his arms. Maybe in the rain.

But that's not how it works. Matt watches Tabby get swept away by senior basketball star and all-around great guy Liam Branson. Losing Tabby to Branson is bad enough, but screwing up and losing her as a friend is even worse.

After a tragic accident, Matt finds himself left on the sidelines, on the verge of spiraling out of control and losing everything that matters to him. From debut author Jared Reck comes a fiercely funny and heart-wrenching novel about love, longing, and what happens when life as you know it changes in an instant.

"This story broke my heart and made me laugh and gave me hope--and really, what more can you ask of a book than that? I loved it, and I have a feeling you will too." --Jennifer E. Smith, author of Windfall and The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight

"In the blink of an eye, A Short History of the Girl Next Door goes from hilarious to haunting to harrowing to heartbreaking to hopeful and back." --Jeff Zentner, award-winning author of The Serpent King and Goodbye Days

"Sharp, smart, and unforgettable." --Kate Hattemer, critically acclaimed author of The Vigilante Poets of Selwyn Academy and The Land of 10,000 Madonnas

"A powerful novel about first love, the intimacy of childhood friendships, and moving forward from loss." --Publishers Weekly

"Pair this with other novels that explore loss from a male perspective, such as Jeff Zentner's Goodbye Days or Adam Silvera's History Is All You Left Me." --Booklist

"Reck gives subtlety and depth to Matt, so he's believable as a flawed guy negotiating his way through his feelings for Tabby as well as his social status in school, his ideas of masculinity, and his insecurities." --The Bulletin

"Recommend this to readers who enjoyed Steven Levenson's Dear Evan Hansen." --VOYA

Jared Reck is a debut author. He received a Bachelor’s in English from Clemson University and a Master’s in Educational Leadership from Shippensburg University, and recently completed graduate coursework in McDaniel College’s Writing for Children & Young Adults program. He lives in Hanover, Pennsylvania, where he’s an eighth-grade Language Arts teacher. Learn more about Jared on Twitter at @reckj.