Amelia Diane Coombs

HBO Max’s Hacks gets a romantic twist in the vein of Jenn Bennett in this swoon-worthy novel about a standoffish teen girl whose loner status gets challenged by a dynamic elderly woman and a perpetually cheerful boy. Eloise Deane is the worst and doesn’t care who knows it. She’s grumpy, prefers to be alone, and is just slogging through senior year with one goal: get accepted to USC and move to California. So when her guidance counselor drops the bombshell that to score a scholarship she’ll desperately need, her applications require volunteer hours, Eloise is up for the challenge. Until she’s paired with LifeCare, a volunteer agency that offers social support to lonely seniors through phone calls and visits. Basically, it’s a total nightmare for Eloise’s anxiety. Eloise realizes she’s made a huge mistake—especially when she’s paired with Austin, the fellow volunteer who’s the sunshine to her cloudy day. But as Eloise and Austin work together to keep Marianne Landis—the mysterious former frontwoman of the 1970s band the Laundromats—company, something strange happens. She actually…likes Marianne and Austin? Eloise isn’t sure what to do with that, especially when her feelings toward Austin begin to blur into more-than-friends territory. And when ex-girlfriends, long-buried wounds, and insecurities reappear, Eloise will have a choice to make: go all in with Marianne and Austin or get out before she gets hurt.

All Alone with You

Jazelle H

That's the beauty of video games. You can slip into a different world. You can become someone else. You can be a hero--or a villain.

Online, I'm less awkward. Online, I have control over who I interact with, and I always have an escape route. Unlike in real life.

I might be fine with my loner status, but too often people find my lack of a social life pitiful. Or a situation in need of a remedy. You can be alone and not be lonely.

Austin isn't turning out like the stereotype inside my head, and I hate it. Austin might me an onion, but I'm a cactus.

"That's the weird thing about fame. It's like love: intense and loud and over before you know it."

"The label and my manager were always lecturing me about being more feminine, more appealing to our male audience. And they'd never listen when I said sex appeal or femininity has jack shit to do with whether or not you're in a dress."

While my depression has become my most debilitating disorder, the anxiety is the most constant. A low-level hum in the background of my everyday life.

I'm not the kind of person who is comfortable advertising their mental health struggles. I get why some people do it. To destigmatize it or help people feel less alone. But I'm not that person. Maybe things are under control right now, but I'm nowhere near having any kind of ownership over my disorders.

Take a chance and make it last  Do it for the story -- The Laundromats, "Memory" (1979)

Getting attached isn't a bad thing. It's the only thing that matters -- how we connect, who we connect with...

All Alone with You quotes

Join the club