Badass(ish)

Three teens set out to stop a pipeline, but their secrets, anxieties, and one very obnoxious ex-boyfriend might just explode their friendship first.

Reeling from an online Hatestorm after she blamed Alberta’ s oil industry for a devastating forest fire, Davis wades back into climate activism to impress her two new friends and win back her ex-boyfriend. The novel is told from the points of view of the three main characters: Davis’ parents work for the oil company she is fighting against; Renzi knows what it’ s like when climate change strikes back when her grandparents’ home in Puerto Rico is destroyed by hurricanes and Jae hasn’ t found the right moment to share the truth about her growing feelings for another girl.

Tripped up by family pressures and their own secrets and lies, the teens’ anti-pipeline efforts may jeopardize their friendship and lose the people they love most unless they find their own ways to fight for what they believe in.

Jaymie Heilman grew up in Sherwood Park, Alberta. She lived in Wisconsin, Peru, and Nova Scotia before circling back home to Alberta, where she teaches Latin American and Caribbean history at the University of Alberta. She has written two books about the history of Peru. When she’ s not reading or writing books for teens, she’ s usually gardening, biking to the library, or dreaming about the ocean. She lives in Edmonton with her husband, son, and a ridiculous number of books. jaymieheilman.com