The Mythic Koda Rose
BY Jennifer Nissley Simon & Schuster2021Query Letter
Koda Rose Grady can’t play guitar. She’s never head-banged, and should not, under any circumstances, sing. Unfortunate, considering her dad is a dead rock god, and her movie star mother has arranged a flashy magazine feature to commemorate Koda’s eighteenth birthday--and his legacy.
Now, trapped in the band’s home base of New York City, Koda is determined to seek answers, ones that don’t exist in Google searches and YouTube archives. Who was her father? Why did he kill himself when she was a baby? Koda’s quest has already pushed her into the arms of Sadie, her father’s coke-addled ex, whom she's been dating secretly for months. So Sadie’s 20 years older. Big deal. Sadie gets Koda. If anyone can reveal the truth about her father, it’s her… until an overdose ships Sadie off to rehab, and leaves Koda more lost than ever.
Luckily, Koda’s resourceful. She’s got her mom’s AmEx, a train ticket, and a plan. But when a visit with her father’s foster family ends in disaster, and mounting pressures from the feature threaten to overwhelm her, Koda faces a choice: keep digging, or fight to make peace with what little knowledge of her dad she does have. A decision that’s only complicated by Sadie’s unexpected return from rehab.
A rock ‘n’ roll story told with literary flair, this novel about the struggle of knowing yourself when the world knows your parents all too well will appeal to readers of emotionally resonant, big-hearted works by Jandy Nelson and Nina LaCour. It’s not Nirvana fan fiction, I swear.
I am a graduate of Stony Brook Southampton’s MFA program, where I studied with Ursula Hegi, Patricia McCormick, and Meg Wolitzer. In my day job, I instruct teenagers in a remedial reading and writing program.
You will find the first 50 pages below. Thank you very much for your time and consideration.
About
Age Range
Young Adult
Genre
Contemporary Fiction
Word Count
72,000
Book Link
Query Stats
My agent did inform me after I signed with her that she requested the full MS based on the strength of my sample and not the query.