YA Fresh

What's Fresh with Bev Katz Rosenbaum's Beyond Cool

Apparently being frozen for ten years hasn't made me any cooler...

The next in the hot series about a girl whose life is really on the rocks.

Floe Ryan was frozen at sixteen because of a rare disease. Now she's been thawed back to her normal self-but everything else has changed: her little sister's older than her, her teachers are holograms, and she's learning to drive a hovercar. Plus, with her boyfriend acting distant and having to deal with all the cliques, high school is becoming an even colder place. She's also learned that those who were frozen are susceptible to illnesses, and the one doctor who can cure them has gone AWOL. Floe must find him. But she's learning that someone might be hunting for her too-and she could be iced for good this time.

Hello, Bev, great to have you here again! Please tell us about your latest novel Beyond Cool.

Bev: Beyond Cool is a Berkley Jam book that came out on August 7th--woohoo! It's the sequel to I Was a Teenage Popsicle, but can also be read as a standalone. It's as fun and action-packed as Popsicle! This time around, cryonically preserved and recently 'thawed' teen heroine Floe Ryan is in a race with the anti-cryonicists to find the one AWOL doctor who can cure the frozen zombies' immune system deficiencies--all while trying to hang onto her hot boyfriend and learn how to drive a hovercar!

Could you share a bit about the main character of your book and what makes her unique?

Bev: Well, she died, was frozen, and then brought back to life ten years later, which makes her pretty unique! But seriously, Floe's the ultimate outcast. She's come back to a whole new world. Talk about feeling out of it! (So while she's unique, she's also just like every other teen in the world... Who among us didn't feel like a freak as a teen?)

Yeah, I had plenty of those moments. haha! How did the idea for this novel come about?

Bev: A few years back, my hubby was following the Ted Williams cryonics brouhaha, and he casually mentioned that a cryonically preserved teen would be a great YA protagonist. I agreed!

What do you hope readers will gain from reading this novel?

Bev: I hope they realize that every teen girl feels like a freak at one time or another--frozen or not!

LOL! Thanks for sharing, Bev. Would you like to close with a novel you highly recommend and why?

Bev: Wow, that's a tough one. There are so many great ones. I love Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak, and any of Meg Cabot's books. And, of course, Kelly Parra's Graffiti Girl--no lie...it was great!

Thanks, Bev! You're so sweet! Best of luck with Beyond Cool!

Bev Katz Rosenbaum is a former fiction editor who turned to YA writing when she fell in love with the books her kids were reading. She lives in Toronto with her family. Bev also runs a popular manuscript critique service. Check out her website at www.bevkatzrosenbaum.com.