Echoes Between Us - McGarry, Katie Page 0,149
importantly, for myself.
The music from the piano ceases, and I glance up to find Veronica looking thoughtfully at me. An angel with a devil’s grin. “Are you done yet?”
“Just one sentence away.”
“Good. I was texting with Sylvia and Miguel and they said there’s this haunted schoolhouse that’s doing tours this evening and I so want to go. Jesse, Scarlett, Leo and Nazareth are thinking about going, too. And then I was thinking we should get ice cream.”
“Has anyone else caught on that the paper’s over?”
“Yes, but you have to admit the research was fun.”
The best. Life altering. I turn back to the computer and speak the last line: Now, I am definitely a believer.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Evelyn Bellak was sixteen years old and had tuberculosis.
She was a real person. Her words, dreams, hopes, and fears became immortalized in a diary that exists today in the safekeeping of the Adirondack Research Room at the Saranac Lake Free Library.
While the quotes used from the diary are from Evelyn Bellak, everything else about this story is fictionalized. It is my great hope that through Veronica and Sawyer’s story, the hope and love reflected in Evelyn’s diary will live on.
A special thank-you to Michele A. Tucker, the curator of the Adirondack Research Room at the Saranac Lake Free Library, for keeping Evelyn’s diary safe and for allowing the world to read her precious words. Also thank you for allowing me permission to use quotes from Evelyn’s diary in this novel.
Bellak, Evelyn, Fond Memories of Ray Brook: A Diary, Jan. 1, 1918–Nov. 18, 1918, courtesy of the Adirondack Research Room, Saranac Lake Free Library.
Also, thank you to Shirley Morgan for writing Well Diary … I Have Tuberculosis, a research of Evelyn’s life and the tuberculosis outbreak in the United States. I love that you fleshed out who Evelyn was beyond the pages of her diary.
If you think you or someone you know might be affected by alcoholism and/or depression, here are some resources that might be able to help.
AA aa.org/
Al-Anon al-anon.org/
Crisis text line for depression: crisistextline.org/depression
Suicide hotline: suicidepreventionlifeline.org/talk-to-someone-now/
PLAYLIST
THEME:
“King of My Heart” by Bethel Music, Steffany Gretzinger and Jeremy Riddle
“What Ifs” by Kane Brown (featuring Lauren Alaina)
“Plush” by Stone Temple Pilots
“Broken Halos” by Chris Stapleton
“Shallow” by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper
“Meant to Be” by Bebe Rexha and Florida Georgia Line
VERONICA:
“… Ready for It?” by Taylor Swift
“Delicate” by Taylor Swift
“This Is What You Came For” by Calvin Harris (featuring Rihanna)
“Mary Jane’s Last Dance” by Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers
SAWYER:
“Believer” by Imagine Dragons
“Interstate Love Song” by Stone Temple Pilots
“Whatever It Takes” by Imagine Dragons
“Thunder” by Imagine Dragons
VERONICA AND SAWYER’S FUTURE:
“Heaven” by Kane Brown
“Simple” by Florida Georgia Line
“Setting the World on Fire” by Kenny Chesney (with P!nk)
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
To God: Psalm 136:1 and Isaiah 41:10
—Thank You for always being by my side.
As always, for Dave.
—Because my heart still melts when you look over at me from the driver’s side of the car and you sing a lyric of a song to me that fits exactly how we love each other.
For A, N, and P.
—Thank you for continually teaching me.
A huge thank-you to Suzie Townsend, Cassandra Baim, KP Simmon, Amy Stapp, Diana Gill, Saraciea Fennell, and Tor Teen for believing in Veronica and Sawyer’s story.
To my wonderful group of friends, family, critique partners, and beta readers who have helped and loved me along the way: Colette Ballard, Kelly Creagh, Bethany Griffin, Kurt Hampe, Bill Wolfe, Wendy Higgins, Kristen Simmons, and Angela Annalaro-Murphy.
And to my readers.
—I am forever grateful for your love and support!
ALSO BY KATIE McGARRY
Only a Breath Apart
THE PUSHING THE LIMITS SERIES
Pushing the Limits
Crossing the Line
Dare You To
Crash Into You
Take Me On
Breaking the Rules
Chasing Impossible
THE THUNDER ROAD SERIES
Nowhere But Here
Walk the Edge
Long Way Home
OTHERS
Say You’ll Remember Me
Red at Night
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
KATIE MCGARRY is an award-winning and critically acclaimed young adult novelist. The author of Only a Breath Apart and the Pushing the Limits and Thunder Road series is currently living out her real-life love story in Kentucky with her husband and three children. McGarry is a lover of music, happy endings, and reality television, and she is a secret University of Kentucky basketball fan. You can sign up for email updates here.
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CONTENTS
Title Page
Notice
Veronica
Sawyer
Veronica
Sawyer
Veronica
Sawyer
Veronica
Sawyer
Veronica
Sawyer
Veronica
Sawyer
Veronica
Sawyer
Veronica
Sawyer
Veronica
Sawyer
Veronica
Sawyer
Veronica
Sawyer
Veronica
Sawyer
Veronica
Sawyer
Veronica
Sawyer
Veronica
Sawyer
Veronica
Sawyer
Veronica
Sawyer
Veronica
Sawyer
Veronica
Sawyer
Veronica
Sawyer
Veronica
Sawyer
Veronica
Sawyer
Veronica
Sawyer
Veronica
Sawyer
Veronica
Sawyer
Veronica
Veronica
Veronica
Sawyer
Veronica
Sawyer
Author’s Note
Playlist
Acknowledgments
Also by Katie McGarry
About the Author
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
ECHOES BETWEEN US
© 2019 by Katie McGarry
All rights reserved.
Quotes from Evelyn Bellak’s diary, Fond Memories of Ray Brook: A Diary, January 1, 1918–November 18, 1918, courtesy of the Adirondack Research Room, Saranac Lake Free Library.
Cover design by Daniela Medina
Cover photograph © Getty Images
A Tor Teen Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates
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New York, NY 10271
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Tor® is a registered trademark of Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC.
The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:
Names: McGarry, Katie, author.
Title: Echoes between us / Katie McGarry.
Description: First edition. | New York: Tor Teen, 2020.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019041386 (print) | LCCN 2019041387 (ebook) | 9781250196040 (hardcover) | 9781250196064 (ebook)
Subjects: CYAC: Ghosts—Fiction. | Brain—Tumors—Fiction. | Compulsive behavior—Fiction. | Alcoholism—Fiction. | Dating (Social customs)—Fiction. | Family life—Fiction.
Classification: LCC PZ7.M167156 Ec 2020 (print) | LCC PZ7.M167156 (ebook) | DDC [Fic]—dc23
LC record available at lccn.loc.gov/2019041386
LC ebook record available at lccn.loc.gov/2019041387
e 9781250196064
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First Edition: January 2020