Half Dead & Fully Broken – A YA Contemporary Novel with Paranormal Undertones

In July 2010 I wrote a YA novel for the 72 hour Muskoka Novel Marathon. That novel was HALF DEAD & FULLY BROKEN. It’s, for the most part, contemporary. BUT…there is a dead guy in it. (-:

The novel won the 2010 Muskoka Novel Marathon’s BEST YOUNG ADULT NOVEL AWARD.

The brief description below, I’m posting for a friend. Another writer with a TWIN manuscript in the works. (-;

(This is not the finished copy of the synopsis…just the closest one at hand.)

Brief Synopsis – Half Dead and Fully Broken

Carter Colby is the most unpopular teen at Trudeau High. This would be easier to deal with if his identical twin brother, Marcus, weren’t the most popular boy in school. Sharing a face with Mr. I-can-do-anything-better-than-you, Mr. Helpful, Mr. Reliable, Mr. Freaking Wonderful—it’s not as easy as it sounds. When Marcus is killed in a motorcycle accident, Carter discovers there are things even harder to deal with than trying to compete with Mr. Wonderful…and that’s sharing a face with him. Nobody wants to see Carter now that he’s walking around with Marcus’s face. He felt invisible before the accident, but with Marcus dead he sees everybody turn away from him in mourning. But how can he blame them, he can’t even bear to look at himself anymore.

But Marcus has a plan. Even dead, he’s still up for saving the world and spreading happiness. Carter begins to see Marcus’s ghost and Marcus has a few magic tricks up his sleeve to share with his brother. But there’s a reason for his presence. Marcus knows that Justin Dewar, the boy who drove the truck that crashed into his motorbike when Marcus ran a red light, is struggling with the guilt of taking a life. Marcus’s plan is to put everything right before it’s too late and all is lost. But he needs Carter to help him…he needs to use Carter’s body to bring his plan into action.

With Marcus’s help, Carter experiences love and friendship for the first time in his life. Marcus, even in death, has the power to do the right thing. He brings Carter together with Melanie, Marcus’s girlfriend, and Justin. The three are broken, but with Marcus’s help they may just be saved. It’s a race to save the distraught Justin, though. With Marcus’s help, Carter and Melanie set out to do just that. And along the journey to saving Justin, they can even inadvertently save themselves.