Excuse Me Why I Ugly Cry

I hated reaching the end of Joya Goffney's Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry because she's made her protagonist, Quinn, really come to life in my mind. I wanted to know what happened next. That is a sign of a truly engaging narrative.
Quinn, a high school senior, doesn't deal with fears and insecurities. She outsources them by writing them down in a journal of lists. She carries it everywhere. Then after a group project meeting at her house she realizes it's missing, taken by mistake by a classmate, Carter, instead of his own. He promises to bring it to school. But by the time she meets up with him he's lost it.
Quinn imagines (in the form of a list of course) places her journal might be. They don't include in the hands of someone she knows who has an agenda. The mystery person has a condition for returning it. She must complete all the items on her To Do Before I Graduate list. In fact if she doesn't her whole journal will go public.
But this isn't a simple list like my list for my things to do before I get my masters degree. This is a list of things she's most afraid to do. Tell her parents she didn't get into Columbia. That's been their dream for her all her life. She'd even created a fake acceptance letter and they've boasted to all their friends. Visit Grandma Hattie. In other words see a beloved relative who has always been strong diminished by Alzheimers. And there are five more. Now Quinn is between a rock and a hard place. She's terrified of attempting even one. But unless she does all seven her most tightly held secrets will be revealed.
Meanwhile Carter (who has a crush on her) wants to prove to her that he didn't keep the journal and lie about losing it. He offers to be her wingman. And she doesn't have much time to do the seemingly impossible.
Powered by unpredictable but very realistic twists and turns, Excuse Me Why I Ugly Cry is a real roller-coaster of a read, one that will have you captivated right through to the final page.
On a purrrsonal note, I created my list when I was in the hospital able to do very little on my own. I decided since I have to go an extra year it will be spectacular, a fireworks grand finale to my education. I decided on a drag club because drag is beloved on the UMaine campus. I just started recruiting this past week and already have enough members for a school organization. There are other items on my list that will be revealed in due time.
A great shout out goes out to already committed and future club members.
Jules Hathaway aka Gotta Believe We're Magic