Cassie Gustafson
Cassie Gustafson is the author of two YA contemporary novels, After the Ink Dries and The Secrets We Keep, which have earned starred publication reviews, #1 Amazon bestseller spots, and features on several “best-of-the-year” YA book lists. She holds an MFA in Writing for Young Adults from Hollins University and an MA in English Literature (with an emphasis in Trauma Theory) from Cal State Fullerton. When she’s not traveling with her pilot husband and young daughter, you can find her on the New England seacoast hunting for sea glass, wandering old cemeteries, creating stained-glass art, and obsessing over all things Halloween. (Or—when the wind shifts in the right direction—trying to write under the weight of two adorable rescue cats.)
Books
After the Ink Dries
Sixteen-year-old Erica Walker is a webcomic artist who wants to fit in at her affluent new high school. Seventeen-year-old Thomas VanBrackel is an aspiring songwriter and reluctant lacrosse goalie who wants out from under his father’s thumb. After their electric first kiss at Saturday’s lacrosse match, Erica and Thomas both want to see where their new relationship could take them.
The next morning, however, following a drunken house party, Erica wakes up half-clothed, and discovers words and names drawn in Sharpie in intimate places on her body—names belonging to Thomas’s lacrosse friends, including the boyfriend of Erica’s best friend. Devastated, Erica convinces herself Thomas wasn’t involved in this horrific so-called prank…until she discovers Thomas’s name on her skin, too.
Told in alternating viewpoints, Erica seeks to uncover what happened while battling to keep evidence of her humiliation from leaking out, as Thomas grapples with his actions and who he thought he was. Woven throughout, illustrated graphic novel interstitials depict Erica’s alter ego superhero, Erica Strange, whose courage just might help Erica come through to the other side.
The Secrets We Keep
High school freshman Emma Clark harbors a secret—a secret so vile it could implode her whole world, a secret she’s managed to keep buried…until the day her best friend, Hannah, accuses Emma’s father of a heinous crime.
Following her father’s arrest and torn between loyalty to Hannah and to her family, Emma is devastated to learn she must testify against Hannah’s word in order to keep her family together. As Emma wrestles with this impossible decision, her fractured past begins to resurface piece by painful piece—causing the line to blur between her present-day reality and the dark fairy tales she writes to survive, all of which threaten to expose Emma’s long-buried truths.
The Secrets We Keep explores the complex, powerful bonds of friendship and family, asking the difficult question: At what point does Emma’s loyalty to another become a betrayal of herself? And perhaps the toughest question of all: Can Emma find the strength to finally unbury her secret?