The Usual Rules

"Wordsworth's prescription for successful poetic writing called for emotion recollected in tranquillity, but in the post-millennial world his advice is decidedly outdated. As if to prove it, a mere 18 months after the September 11th terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, the intrepid Joyce Maynard has delivered one of the first novels incorporating that day's horrific events . . . [The author's] gift for creating realistic and heartfelt domestic moments succeeds in convincing us that Wendy has found a reason to go on in the midst of her tremendous sorrow, and that she, like her heroine Anne Frank, still believes 'in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart.'"—The New York Times Book Review

"Haunting . . . Maynard's fictional survivor provides deeper solace than the spiritual cheerleading that often applies to coping with loss in our culture . . . Maynard's feel for the workings of a 13-year-old's internal voice distinguishes The Usual Rules in the same way writer Judy Blume did a generation earlier in Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret . . . [Maynard] speaks to a generation of young girls who are trying to navigate through a culture of loss, of wanting to belong to a family and at the same time free themselves from the usual rules . . . [She] explores the idea of family as much as she examines the culture of loss."—Kathy Balog, USA Today

"Joyce Maynard takes us into the heart and mind of a thirteen-year-old girl struggling to come to terms with her mother's death. What so many of us wondered about—and what most of us feared—is captured perfectly in these pages; the horror, the disbelief, the unspeakable grief, and the painfully slow recovery that come hand-in-hand with such a sudden and senseless loss."—Hope Edelman, author Motherless Daughters

"Joyce Maynard has created unforgettable characters in this moving story of love and loss. It will make you laugh and cry. Be prepared—once you pick up this book you won't be able to put it down."—Judy Blume

"Joyce Maynard has taken a timely subject and found in it those timeless aspects of human experience that sometimes make fiction more truthful than fact. Any reader who has suffered great loss—loss of love, of certainty, of trust in the usual rules—will empathize with, and be comforted by, Maynard's wonderfully authentic characters. The story of their journey from devastation to hope is honest, heartrending, compassionate, and, in the end, profoundly healing. A jewel."—Martha Beck, author of Expecting Adam: A True Story of Birth, Rebirth and Everyday Magic

"Every now and then I'll finish a stellar book and think, 'I wish I'd written that.' The Usual Rules is one of these—a heartbreaking, haunting, perfectly pitched novel about a young girl who loses everything one sunny September morning, and manages to find herself in the midst of it all. If we are still learning lessons post 9/11, then Maynard's book should be required reading: to help us remember how we used to be, and to celebrate the stronger, spirited people we are capable of becoming."—Jodi Picoult, author of Perfect Match and Second Place

"Out of violence, sorrow, and loss, Maynard has crafted a miracle: a heartbreaking and ultimately hopeful novel that has much to say about families and the ways in which they support and fail each other. At the heart of The Usual Rules is this: love and understanding are the means by which we save ourselves."—Anne LeClaire, author of Leaving Eden and Entering Normal

"Wonderful, genuine, anguished, vibrant . . . A beautiful, sad novel about love, grief, and hope."—The Baltimore Sun

"Joyce Maynard has written the story we all imagined but dared not tackle—what happens to a postmillennial Wendy thrust into a Neverland she could never have imagined."—Jacqueline Mitchard, author of The Deep End of the Ocean

"She seems to deeply understand a teenager's grief. Readers . . . will find it impossible not to root for Wendy as she figures out how to get on with her life."—People

"Joyce Maynard . . . conveys with poignancy and realism Wendy's struggle to cope with her mother's disappearance. As she finds her own way through the rubble and discovers pockets of hope and optimism in her future, Wendy serves as an inspiration for anyone touched by tragedy, at any age."—Bookpage

"Maynard offers a sensitive account of how 13-year-old Wendy copes with the death of her 20mother."—Library Journal

"In the aftermath of September 11, the usual rules don't apply, as this sometimes wrenching, ultimately cathartic novel shows . . . This is a well-wrought and heartfelt portrayal of the people [such tragedies can leave] behind."—Michele Leber, Booklist

"While the first fifty-odd pages of Maynard's new novel are emotionally harrowing, perseverance is rewarded. Set both in Brooklyn and the small town of Davis, California, following the events of September 11, the book tells the coming-of-age story of a girl whose mother goes to work one morning and doesn't come back . . . The intense subject matter and well-crafted flashbacks make for a worthy read . . . Readers will find the novel an honest and touching story of personal loss, explored with sensitivity and tact. Maynard brings national tragedy to a personal level, and while the loss and heartache of her characters are certainly fictional, the emotions her story provokes are very real."—Publishers Weekly