Live, Laugh, KIDNAP

YA fiction 

     In Gabby Noone's Live,Laugh, KIDNAP the setting is as much of a character as the humans who inhabit it.  Violet, Montana is one of many small towns with dwindling populations and lackluster Main Streets.  Only it's torn between its past and future.

     "The Astralians were no longer radicals who disavowed the ways of capitalism, religion, and nuclear family in favor of communal living and a shared belief in the power of meditation and hypnosis.  It had been years since the townspeople of Violet, Montana had cowered in fear of its members or grabbed their rifles and threatened to shoot the demons they believed possessed their souls."

     Genesis was an unborn child when all that was going on.  Now, at seventeen, she's exhausted and discouraged.  The backbreaking labor of farming never seems to diminish her commune's financial precariousness.  Her family seems to stick around more from inertia than from any kind of conviction.  When she learns that the newcomer Hope Harvest Church is trying to buy the property to turn it into another branch of their empire she thinks maybe it's time for a change.

     Zoey is a member of that church but not a happy camper.  She's gained a trouble maker reputation for her inconvenient questions on matters such as capitalism.  She can imagine what a stir it would cause if anyone suspected her lack of interest in boys.  Not to mention that while she slaves away at a diner her mother squanders money on the church's get rich quick schemes and crashes at a relative's house when the utilities are cut off.

     Holly is the daughter of the owner of the not very successful diner Zoey waitresses at.  She left Violet as a baby and has been sent back for the summer by her mother and stepfather as a punishment.  She's told her private school classmates that she's in Iceland for vacation because the truth seems just too humiliating.

     Dustin is the golden boy only son of Hope Harvest's minister.  However, he hasn't swallowed the church Kool-aid.  He's deeply bothered by its focus on material goods rather than spirituality.  In fact he's so bothered by their hypocrisy he wants out.  He asks the girls to kidnap him.  They can all split the ransom money.

It's a spur of the moment scheme and there's so much that could go wrong.  But Dustin is dealing with folks who are equally desperate to escape the confines of their lives.

On a purrrsonal note, it's been a mostly cold, wet weekend.  Last night I had to wear my new flannel moose and ❄️ pajamas to bed.  Yesterday Eugene took me out to Governors for breakfast.  Then my new friend, Briana, and I hung out in downtown Orono.  I got a really 😍 cute dress that goes perfect 🥰 with my new clean sweep sweater.  Today I went to zoom church.  But mostly I've been working.  (Jules)

And cuddling with me.  (Tobago)

A great big 👏 shout out goes out to Eugene and Briana.

Tobago and Jules Hathaway ♥️ 

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