Down in the Belly of the Whale
by Kelley Kay Bowles
GENRE: Young Adult Paranormal
PUBLICATION DATE: 05/05/2018
DESCRIPTION:
Harper Southwood is a teenage girl with a supernatural sense for when people will get sick — but so what? She can’t predict her best friend’s depression or her mother’s impending health crisis. Being helpful is all Harper ever wanted, but she feels helpless in the face of real adversity. Now, she’s got a chance to summon her courage and use her wits to fight for justice.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Kelley (Kelley Kay Bowles, Kelley Kaye, Kelley Gusich) taught High School English and Drama for 20 years in Colorado and California, but her love for storytelling dates back to creating captions for her high school yearbook. Maybe back to the tales she created around her Barbie and Ken.
A 1994 MS diagnosis has (circuitously) brought Kelley, finally, to the life of writer and mother, both of which she adores. "Death by Diploma," released by Red Adept Publishing in February 2016, #1 for cozy mystery on Amazon in August that same year, is her debut cozy mystery, first in the Chalkboard Outlines® series. Book two, "Poison by Punctuation," was released April 24, 2018. Book three, "Strangled by Simile" came out June 25, 2021 and the end of the series, "Murder by Metaphor," will be out in mid-2025.
Her debut YA Paranormal, "Down in the Belly of the Whale," a standalone story, received the 2017 Indie Book of the Year from Aionios Books, who published the book May 5, 2018.
REVIEWS:
"Bowles, who also writes books under the name of Kelley Kaye, clearly understands the world of young adults. Her depiction of Harper — her anxieties and excitability; her inner and outer personas; her heightened sense of the importance of 'now' — cannot fail to pull readers into a teen mindset. The story is increasingly dark, yet in the telling it neither wallows nor depresses. Harper is allowed strength in her vulnerability. Bowles writes to engage and to confront yet always seemingly with the intent to uplift. The resulting novel, far from being a leaden treatise on teen suffering, spurns literary pretensions and strives instead to include Harper’s generation of young adults and give this group its due. Girls especially will relate, but there is room here for everyone. A sage, vivacious tale of people set apart and brought together." — Kirkus Reviews
COMPARATIVE FILM/BOOK:
Raft by Stu Krieger
CASTING:
Harper Southwood — Hailee Steinfeld. Cora Perkins — Chloe Grace Moretz. Michael Southwood — Jensen Ackles. Isabelle Southwood — Laura Fraser. Uncle Pasta — Will Estes. Uncle Lucas — Aaron Paul.
PRIMARY VENUES/LOCATIONS WITHIN THE BOOK:
This entire book takes place in the fictional mountain town of Pinewood, Colorado, a cross between Lake Tahoe and Estes Park.
BOOK EXCERPT:
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