A Catalog of Burnt Objects - by Shana Youngdahl

Book Synopsis

Now in paperback, the story of a girl confronting her estranged brother and a new love just as wildfires beset her small California town--by the acclaimed author of As Many Nows as I Can Get

Seventeen-year-old Caprice wants to piece her family back together now that her older brother has returned home, even as she resents that he ever broke them apart. Just as she starts to get a new footing--falling in love for the first time, uncertainly mending her traumatized relationship with her brother, developing the app that will win her a college scholarship and a job in tech--wildfires strike Sierra, her small California town, undoing everything she's ever known, and forcing her to reckon with a future that is impossible to predict. A love story of many kinds, this is a tale that looks at what is lost and discovers what remains, and how we can be nearly destroyed again and again, and still survive.

Review Quotes

"Gorgeous worldbuilding [and] depth without slowing the pace . . . There are swoony scenes and wildly fun best-friend chats, [but] this isn't your typical teen romance--like the fire, it has darker and more complicated edges . . . Unputdownable." --BCCB

★ "Youngdahl's eloquent sophomore work celebrates love, loss, family, and the meaning of home. . . . Her narrative goes straight to the heart in lucid, well-crafted sentences. Caprice is complexly developed: stubborn but empathetic, loyal, and giving, and she is surrounded by a well-drawn, realistic group of characters. Full of heart and sure to have mass appeal." --Booklist (starred review)

★ "Smart and moving; a beautiful tribute to those living with the threat of wildfires." --Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"A Catalog of Burnt Objects assures us, in the most heart-wrenching and lyrical terms, that even as our world burns in ways both figurative and literal, love and hope will survive the dark night and rise from the ashes." --Jeff Zentner, award-winning author of In The Wild Light

"This is a truly tender novel on many levels--a deeply moving story about loss, tragedy, and mistakes, and how these things can imprint in our bodies and in the ways we try to find ourselves. Through Caprice's eyes, we also get to know the people, vibrancy, and heart of the town of Sierra. You can't help but fall in love with the world inside this book." --Helena Fox, award-winning author of How It Feels to Float

"A Catalog of Burnt Objects meets the destruction of our planet and our lives head on in a thoughtful, hopeful tight-rope walk between first loss and first love. The peril of climate change has never been made so personal to the generation now coming of age as their world burns, and as we come together to rethink and rebuild." --Daisy Garrison, acclaimed author of Six More Months of June

"Searingly real." --The Chico Enterprise Record

"This heartbreaking and moving novel is a must-read." --Brightly

About the Author

Shana Youngdahl is a poet, professor, and the author of the acclaimed novel As Many Nows as I Can Get, a Seventeen Best Book of the Year, a New York Public Library Top Ten Best Book of the Year, and a Kirkus Best Book of the Year. Shana hails from Paradise, California, devastated by the 2018 Camp Fire, which stirred her to write this novel. She now lives with her husband, two daughters, dog, and cat in Missouri.