Beyond Crazy Year

BEYOND CRAZY YEAR: A Contemporary Coming of Age Novel

Do you remember 2020? Did you live through the crazy issues like racism caused riots, as well as the long-term fear caused by climate change? Even worse, did you lose a family member to Covid? What a Beyond Crazy Year to be a teenager!

High school freshman Bry wants to fade into the background while working online gaming skills into a profitable career at home. Halfway through his first year in high school, Bry believes that global warming, racism, and Covid are nothing but boring TV news. Then, a new girl, Shizuka, starts school. She and Bry are co-assigned an environmental science project.

Everything flips from TV fiction to real life. Local polluters and Anti-Asian racism become real. Angry real for Bry when a neighborhood polluter poisons his dog. Physically real when a racist assaults his new friend, Shizuka. Then school changes to virtual because of Covid and loneliness becomes something hidden behind masks. Everything's beyond crazy. Through it all, Bry denys his fears.

Until, one morning, Bry has to face a kid's worst nightmare. His parents, quarantined on a cruise ship in a California harbor, are diagnosed with Covid-19 and sent across country to a Texas hospital. His father's case worsens, his mother freaks, she needs family help. Bad. So--will Bry be man enough to find a way to help his mom?

If you remember Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson, or The Cherry Pickers by Gregory C. Randall, then you'll love Beyond Crazy Year by Robby Robertson. Robby's novel is similar in so many ways, only different in that it has modern-day characters beset with the beyond crazy trials today's kids are still facing.