Sometimes the Girl (coming May 6, 2025, Lerner/Carolrhoda Lab)
Eighteen-year-old Holiday needs to sort her life out.
She’s still shaken from her brother’s recent suicide attempt; still pining over her ex, Maya; and still struggling to write again after a long dry spell. To earn enough money for a rebalancing trip with Maya, Holi gets a short-term job: organizing the attic of acclaimed author Elsie McAllister. It’s an unglamorous gig with a difficult boss. Elsie—whose fame rests on a single novel published decades ago—is in her nineties, in failing health, and fiercely protective of her privacy. But as Holi sorts through the attic’s surprising contents, she realizes there’s much more to Elsie than the novel that made her a legend.
Unearthing Elsie’s secrets will change how Holi sees art, life, and the way they intertwine, as she grapples with choices that will redefine her own path.
“Mason-Black’s prose sparkles with poetic beauty as Holi engages in introspective musings about collective mourning and how individual healing is possible only in community… Beautifully written and powerfully uplifting.” —Kirkus [starred review]
“With gorgeous prose and a setting so real you can smell the boxes in Elsie’s attic, Jennifer Mason-Black crafts a story that’s part-mystery and part-odyssey. Through her complicated, layered relationship with Elsie, Holi unboxes secrets, deep wounds, and a longing for the kind of healing that comes with human connection.” —Carrie Firestone, author of The First Rule of Climate Club and Dress Coded
“Sometimes the Girl is a book so powerful and tender that you just want to hold it close, knowing it will help you weather your own hard times. With enormous skill, Jennifer Mason-Black crosses the generation gap to plumb the pain—and poetry and transcendence— that unite two women writers of two wildly different eras. This is a metafiction every bit as addictive as the bestselling novel it’s about.” —Margot Harrison, author of Only She Came Back
“Mason-Black never shies away from the hard questions and harder answers in this devastating, engrossing puzzle of a story. I can’t stop thinking about it.” —Mary McCoy, author of I, Claudia and Indestructible Object
Devil and the Bluebird (Spring 2016, Amulet/Abrams)
Blue Riley has wrestled with her own demons ever since the loss of her mother to cancer. But when she encounters a beautiful devil at her town crossroads, it’s her runaway sister’s soul she fights to save. The devil steals Blue’s voice—inherited from her musically gifted mother—in exchange for a single shot at finding Cass.
Armed with her mother’s guitar, a knapsack of cherished mementos, and a pair of magical boots, Blue journeys west in search of her sister. When the devil changes the terms of their deal, Blue must reevaluate her understanding of good and evil and open herself to finding family in unexpected places.
In Devil and the Bluebird, Jennifer Mason-Black delivers a captivating depiction of loss and hope.
“Even though the road trip genre goes back all the way to Homer and has been rehashed a thousand times, Blue’s journey feels fresh and surprising. It conjures up a cold wind, a warm hearth, and the sweet jangle of guitar strings.” —NPR
“Jennifer Mason-Black knows how to find wonder in the messy stuff of our world: a bus graveyard, a diner, a TV game where players stray from their scripted songs. It may not conjure many spirits, yet music is the true magic here.” —Locus
“A magical-realist adventure laced with folk guitar and outcast drifters unpacks the bonds of family—those we are born into and those we choose.” ―Kirkus [starred review]
“First-time novelist Mason-Black delivers a subtle, delicate tale reminiscent of the work of Charles de Lint, a magical realist journey of self-discovery and hidden depths, with fascinating characters and a captivating narrative.” ―Publisher’s Weekly [starred review]
“In Devil and the Bluebird, the universal question of a soul’s worth feels uniquely American, drawing on the folk legend of the devil and Robert Johnson. Mason-Black’s story lives on society’s fringes, tangling around small-time musicians, lost souls and street kids, highlighting the beauty and brutality of wandering the world alone. Older teens will especially appreciate this allegory for finding one’s voice, finding one’s own kind of family, and the danger of playing “a tune that’s not your own.” ―ShelfAwareness [starred review]
“Old-school Weetzie Bat fans will be enthralled with this musical, meandering book brimming with magical realism and all sorts of ways to find and give love.” ―BCCB
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