J.C. Geiger (jcgeiger.com) survived an earthquake on the Mouth of Hell volcano in Nicaragua, learned to drive stick shift on a bookmobile, and once fell asleep while running. He also writes fiction. He is a GrandSLAM Storytelling Champion at The Moth, and his work has appeared on stage at The Second City and No Shame Theatre. His debut novel, Wildman, was named by Bank Street as a Best YA Book of the Year. J.C. lives about sixty miles from the Oregon coast, and makes the trip as often as he can.

Praise for The Great Big One:

"J.C. Geiger's The Great Big One is a love song to the people and places that define us, a punk rock anthem of adolescence--a sweeping symphony that picks the reader up like a powerful wave and carries them away in its pages. It is beautiful, dangerous (as all good literature should be), and perhaps most importantly, a challenge to embrace the mysterious."--Bryan Bliss, author of the National Book Award longlist title We'll Fly Away

"Compelling character development . . . will find an audience in teens with a sense of wanderlust and an itch for adventure."--School Library Journal

"Think Cain and Able looking for Woodstock and hippies while on a remarkable quest for the meaning of life. J.C Geiger has built a unique, gritty, and challenging world decorated with similes, music, myth, love, and death."
]--School LIbrary Connection

"Geiger's staccato, enigmatic sentence fragments are stylistically interesting and poetic... this sophomore novel is a moving, bittersweet examination of the search for a meaningful signal in the noise after a death."
--Booklist

"Geiger plays fast and loose with realism, sprinkling in a hint of magic, unlikely luck, and unreliable narration to blur the genres a bit between realistic fiction and fantasy."--BCCB

"Lyrically told in the third person over three parts, this tale of first love, music, grief, and identity takes unexpected turns."--Kirkus

"With an ambitious plotline and nuanced characters, Geiger's (Wildman) novel begins as a tense love triangle before veering into a . . . richly detailed mystery about the terrible catastrophes that even the most ardent prepper cannot anticipate."--Publisher's Weekly

Praise for Wildman:

"I LOVE THIS BOOK. It's hilarious, sad, and unputdownable."--Laini Taylor, New York Times bestselling author and National Book Award Finalist

*"A thought-provoking, hilarious, eloquent story of a young man realizing that the world is much larger than the one set up for him."--Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"Wildman is that good song that gets under your skin and respins your DNA."--Martha Brockenbrough, award-winning author of The Game of Love and Death

"The book shines the brightest when it toes the line between real and surreal, highlighting the existential question that high-school graduates face: How do I live the rest of my life?"--Booklist

Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Pub date: 2022-07-12

Length: 384 pages