THE SOONER I GO

In Cumiskey’s novel, a teenage girl sets aside her musical aspirations for an unpaid ad agency internship after a tragic accident.

The night that should have launched the dreams of rock stardom of 18-year-old Brynn and her boyfriend, Cody, instead becomes the line between her past and her present. Two cars, two accidents, three deaths—suddenly, Brynn is left to navigate the aftermath of losing both her parents and her boyfriend. With her parents’ assets liquidated and their properties sold to cover their large amount of debt, Brynn is left with only a claustrophobic studio apartment that she calls “the coffin” (“No bedroom or private bath here”).Music, once the lynchpin of her identity as the daughter of musicians, is put on the back burner in favor of getting a job to cover her mounting bills. She manages to land an interview at a prestigious New York ad agency; on her way there, she encounters Micah Kershaw, who’s impatient, rude, and closes the elevator doors on her when she steps out to help an elderly woman. Micah turns out to be her interviewer. His great-grandfather founded the agency in the early 1940s, and despite being only 20, Micah is an associate creative director. He informs Brynn that she doesn’t have enough experience to be a paid intern; she’s given the opportunity to work unpaid, and thus begins the development of their relationship, from reluctant co-workers to something more. Told via alternating perspectives, Cumiskey’s narrative manages to balance the budding romance with a well-rendered exploration of grief, familial expectations, and mental health. As Brynn rebuilds her life after tragedy, Micah struggles to conceal the schizophrenia that’s already cost him so much. The author is skilled at building tension, playing with readers’ investment in the characters’ relationship by having Micah’s fear of falling into psychosis hang over every interaction with Brynn. Part grief narrative, part workplace drama, and part love story, the novel compellingly examines how loss, ambition, and mental health intersect and questions how one can move on in love when a traumatic past is still being reckoned with.

A tense, emotional mix of grief and romance.