Summary
We Are Okay meets They Both Die at the End in this YA debut about queer first love and mental health at the end of the world-and the importance of saving yourself, no matter what tomorrow may hold.
Avery Byrne has secrets. She’s queer; she’s in love with her best friend, Cass; and she’s suffering from undiagnosed clinical depression. But on the morning Avery plans to jump into the river near her college campus, the world discovers there are only nine days left to an asteroid is headed for Earth, and no one can stop it.
Trying to spare her family and Cass additional pain, Avery does her best to make it through just nine more days. As time runs out and secrets slowly come to light, Avery would do anything to save the ones she loves. But most importantly, she learns to save herself. Speak her truth. Seek the support she needs. Find hope again in the tomorrows she has left.
If Tomorrow Doesn’t Come is a celebration of queer love, a gripping speculative narrative, and an urgent, conversation-starting book about depression, mental health, and shame.
Review
The very specific subgenre of apocalyptic queer YA fiction is growing more and more popular, and it’s easy to see why. In the pressure cooker of impending doom that is the end of the world, of course secrets are told and reconciliations made – whether that be with yourself or with somebody else.
If Tomorrow Doesn’t Come is an example of the best of the genre. Avery is (mostly) closeted, and isolated, suffering with depression and on the brink of suicide. Over the course of the book, we see the events in her life that led to this point, and both we and Avery see what she really needs. Across the nine days that she and her family count down until the meteor strike, she takes us on a tender and heartfelt journey of emotions as she reconfigures her ideas about the past and the future.
This was an incredibly moving read, and one that I could not put down. It’s ultimately a story of hope, but it includes so many themes and ideas on the way. I particularly liked the way Avery’s relationship with her parents evolved over the course of the book, and her romance with Cass felt so painfully true to life for a young queer woman figuring out who she is.
This is a truly brilliant book. I try to avoid the now-cliche “I wish I had this when I was a kid” for a number of reasons – not least that I still saw myself and benefited from reading it as an adult. That being said: I’m very, very glad that this book is out there for those who need it the most.
I received a free copy as part of a book tour by TheWriteReads. All opinions are my own.
About the Author
Lambda Literary Fellow Jen St. Jude (she/they) grew up in New Hampshire apple orchards and now lives in Chicago with her wife and dog. She has served as an editor for Chicago Review of Books, Just Femme & Dandy, and Arcturus Magazine. When she’s not reading or writing, you can find her cheering on the Chicago Sky and Red Stars. If Tomorrow Doesn’t Come is her first novel.
elementary my dear 
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