"On Edge"

Gin Price lives in Michigan with her partner David, two children, many reptiles and an ornery cat.

She applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, On Edge, and reported the following:

From page 69:

I couldn’t hide my wince. “Yikes.”

“They were terrified of getting arrested for child neglect, so they both took turns staying home for a month.”

“Well that was good at least, right?” I wasn’t sure trying to make her feel better about her parents’ behavior was a good tactic, but I didn’t feel comfortable not saying anything in support.

“Are you kidding? I wanted to make them panic, not stay home and glare at me. I couldn’t wait for them to leave again. Rosahlia is all the guardian I can handle. She comes, she cooks and cleans, and doesn’t try to get in my way when I want to do something. She does kinda nag, though. Hey, isn’t that—?”

Liv pointed off toward the ticket booth and I followed her finger. Yup. My luck from the rest of the day stayed consistent. “Yeah. Haze.”

“I’m used to calling him Bren, but I’ll try to remember Haze. You know me, I could give a rat’s ass about that street bullshit.” And then as if she remembered who she was talking to she added. “Except you, Ellie.”

Feeling suddenly happy, I laughed openly, a part of me wondering if Haze would recognize the timbre of my voice and home in.

There was no home-age.

“I know you dig what I do. Don’t sweat it. Maybe one day you’ll get over your fear of heights.”

“No way. I’ll leave all the cool acrobatics to you. Hey, they’re looking over here. Think they’ll come over?”

Sexay Home-age after all! I kept my happy feet from dancing. “I have no idea. Maybe you should wave, Liv. You said you wanted to start slow with talking to him again. If he sees you looking and you don’t wave...”

This excerpt of On Edge is an accurate representation of some of the main emotions running through the book.

There’s the awkwardness of not knowing what to say to your friend when they talk about something tragic that happened to them. I personally feel you don’t know what to say in those moments mostly when you don’t know how to trust. Also, you can see the need to change focus past that awkwardness not only by the person confessing, but by the friend who feels inadequate.

The transition between uncertainty of comfort into uncertainty of giddy, romantic feelings introduces one of the main underlying tones of On Edge. Is the main character falling in love with friend or foe?

Visit Gin Price's website and blog.

--Marshal Zeringue