We Are Mayhem [Paperback]

Filled with messy, complicated characters,We Are Mayhemis a debut YA novel about finding your strength, embracing your weird, and being who you truly areno matter what.

When Birdies parents move the family from their gated New Jersey community to the Catskills, Birdie thinks life as she knows it is once againjust like it was when she quit gymnasticscompletely over. But when Birdies friends ditch her during a dare gone wrong, she finds herself staring down the barrel of a shotgun wielded by Mad Mabel the Mother of Mayhem, and Birdie strikes a deal with Mabel to work off her crime.

Abigail Rose, Mabels granddaughter, is convinced that Birdiewhose big, strong arms have always felt like the bane of her existenceis destined to help pull her familys male-dominated indie wrestling promotion in a more feminist direction.

With no way to return to or escape her past and no clear course into her future, Birdie has to find a way to somehow make her new town a home. But if Birdie is going to be the future of Mayhem, she first has to find a way to embrace who she isno matter the cost.

Beck Rourke-Mooneygrew up outside Providence and has worked as clambake staff, a donut finisher, a ballot counting machine tester, a telemarketer, and most importantly, a middle school English teacher. When not writing contemporary YA novels, they procrasti-bake, write songs, and watch (depending on who you ask) either way too much or just enough television, including, of course, wrestling. She lives in upstate New York.

Rourke-Mooneys snarky yet heartwarming prose propels the story and reveals Birdies inner struggles with body image, gender, and physical strength; the result is a captivating and offbeat debut that explores wrestling, gender nonconformity, femme friendships, and finding ones bliss and true self.
-Publishers Weekly

Fans of GLOW and WWE will catch familiar names, but readers who dont care about wrel;