Because Of Joan

" I do not fear death, but I sooner fear this girl grinning at me from the door, as if she knows some secret of mine that I myself do not know." -Atticus Dombrovsky

Atticus Harper Dombrovsky is a seventeen-year-old, exceptionally cold-hearted, intelligent, and precocious boy, who suffers from a heart ailment that has left him anticipating death.

Joan Coreen Rivers is a seventeen-year-old, eccentric, and mysterious girl, who demands adventure and spontaneousness even in the mundane.

Together they navigate a rocky and defective friendship as they try to overcome their misunderstandings of one another. Yet, despite their differences, it is that very same polarity that brings them together despite their dark and dismal pasts. As Atticus swings between his various emotions regarding Joan, so too does Joan swing mysteriousely from mood to mood, making Atticus wonder what she's hiding from him...

Just when Atticus accepts the mystery of it, however, something devastating rocks their friendship, leaving Atticus with no way to turn but to his estranged father living a state away, and Joan's estranged mother, living as an abstract artist in Seattle. With this adventure before him, and the unlikely ghost of a heart-condition holding him down, Atticus sets out to find answers to his and Joan's story; to the pieces of the puzzle that he's missing.