The Inconceivable Life of Quinn

by Marianna Baer

Overview

Quinn Cutler is sixteen and the daughter of a high-profile Brooklyn politician. She’s also pregnant, a crisis made infinitely more shocking by the fact that she has no memory of ever having sex. Before Quinn can solve this deeply troubling mystery, her story becomes public. Rumors spread, jeopardizing her reputation, her relationship with a boyfriend she adores, and her father’s campaign for Congress. Religious fanatics gather at the Cutlers’ home, believing Quinn is a virgin, pregnant with the next messiah. Quinn’s desperate search for answers uncovers lies and family secrets—strange, possibly supernatural ones. Might she, in fact, be a virgin?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781683350644
Publisher:	ABRAMS
Publication date:	04/04/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	4 MB
Age Range:	13 - 17 Years

About the Author

Marianna Baer has an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts and is the author of the young adult novel Frost. According to Kirkus Reviews, “Baer has a knack for dialogue and creating creepy situations that will intrigue teens.” She lives in Brooklyn and works as a freelance editor.

Editorial Reviews

★ 02/06/2017
Quinn Cutler, the 16-year-old daughter of a writer running for U.S. Congress, is shocked to learn that she’s pregnant: she’s never had sex, at least not as far as she can remember. As word gets out that she’s both pregnant and claiming to be a virgin, devout believers pilgrimage to the family’s Brooklyn home, hoping to see Quinn and even be healed. In a suspenseful and thought-provoking novel, Baer (Frost) tackles the illusiveness of memory (especially in regard to trauma), media firestorms, fear of the unknown, and the complexities of faith, without ever turning didactic or allowing Quinn’s story to fall into melodrama. Amid the growing chaos of her life, Quinn becomes a capable and courageous sleuth in the search for answers; writing in third person, Baer makes readers intimately aware of Quinn’s confusion and conflicted feelings about her pregnancy, as well as the reactions of people close to (and not so close to) her that escalate matters dangerously. It’s a delicate, complicated, and engrossing exploration of the collision between real life and the inexplicable. Ages 13–up. Agent: Sara Crowe, Pippin Properties. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

"The confusion Quinn deals with is well crafted, and the secondary characters offer rich insight into the story...those who are looking for a story focusing on blending real life and the unexplained will enjoy this title."

School Library Connection

"Quinn’s determined struggle to piece together the puzzle compellingly drives the narrative onward, and readers on board for something thought-provoking will be hooked."

Booklist

Quinn Cutler, a junior in high school whose father is running for Congress, is shocked to find that she is pregnant. She and Jesse, her boyfriend, are not sexually active, and Quinn insists that she is a virgin. Her parents suspect she may have been drugged or that she is suppressing the memory of a traumatic rape. Quinn tries to remember details of events during the two-week window when conception occurred. She remembers a magical, midnight ocean swim that was intimate, pure, and beautiful; that does not fit with a rape scenario. Childhood memories also surface, including a story about ocean spirits, The Deeps. Lacking physical evidence of rape, Quinn begins to question the seemingly inconceivable. Do the Deeps really exist? Are they responsible for her mysterious pregnancy? The personification of nature, symbolism, metaphors, and similes effectively create a mystical mood and frame nature as a place of protection and truth. This is juxtaposed to the social world humans create, revealed in brief interspersed chapters from the perspectives of hopeful believers, hostile critics, family, and friends. Here, secondary characters expose issues in the ethics of journalism and social media, conflicts around female sexual norms, science versus the supernatural, and earned versus unconditional love and acceptance. Quinn and her parents discuss pro-choice options for her pregnancy. Mary's virgin birth and questions about the accuracy of the Bible are debated and germane to the story. Inconceivable will make a great book club selection, stimulating interesting conversations about relevant, contemporary social issues. Reviewer: Stefanie N. Hughes; Ages 15 to 18.

VOYA, April 2017 (Vol. 40, No. 1) - Stefanie N. Hughes

02/01/2017
Gr 9 Up—Quinn Cutler, 16, is the daughter of an up-and-coming Brooklyn politician. She never thought she would be pregnant. How can she be pregnant when she has never had sex? That is the question Quinn and her family attempt to answer. Things get complicated when a gossipy newspaper article outs Quinn's pregnancy and claims she is a virgin. Suddenly, the family's front stoop is crowded with spectators believing that Quinn is carrying the next messiah. Even she begins to question the true origin of her pregnancy. Was she drugged, or is this the result of something more mysterious? Family secrets reveal a truth buried far in Quinn's past. Her journey is hampered by a sluggish pace and stereotypical characters: the detached older brother, the strict father. Baer explores Quinn's pregnancy mostly through the lens of her family's status in the public eye. However, the teen's more personal emotional and physical experiences are not given due diligence. Treatment of the pregnancy conflict might reinforce negative stereotypes surrounding teen pregnancy. A brief look into Quinn's future soon after she gives up her baby for adoption fails to capture the emotional complexity she surely must have experienced. VERDICT Flat characterizations and the melding of realistic fiction and local mythology never cohere into a developed story. Consider only as an additional purchase.—Carrie Finberg, South Park High School, PA

School Library Journal

2017-01-17
Quinn is 16, a virgin—or so she thinks—and pregnant. Miracle or repressed trauma?She's not sure. When a routine OB-GYN appointment reveals her pregnancy at the start of her junior year, white Brookynlite Quinn Cutler can't reconcile her condition with reality. She and her boyfriend have never gone that far. Ultrasound narrows the time of conception to a two-week window in which she has hazy memories of a midnight swim at Holmes Cove, a dangerous stretch of water near her family's long-unused vacation home in Maine. Quinn's grandmother committed suicide at Holmes Cove when her father was a child, and Quinn herself nearly drowned there at age 7. Since then her family's past has been cloaked in lies and deceptions; Quinn knows she was naked at Holmes Cove, but all the memories she does have are filled with joy. Her father's running for Congress, so the family is already in the news, and the idea that Quinn's carrying another Messiah sends pious and possibly unhinged people to camp out on the family's doorstep. Baer's third-person narration alternates among Quinn and several other characters. Quinn's voice is real and believable, and the characters are multifaceted and sympathetic, but an element of magical realism shows up rather late in the long novel, as does important information about Quinn's grandmother and Holmes Cove, and some readers won't last that long. Uneven pacing hobbles an intriguing plot. (Fiction. 14-18)

Kirkus Reviews