Living and All Grown Up
Author
Sergey Kuznetsov
Format
Novel, 2019
340 pp
Genre
Children’s/YA adventure with horror and mystery elements
Title
Living and All Grown Up
Aesthetics
Gripping, suspenseful, eerie, heartfelt, coming-of-age
References
Stranger Things, the Duffer brothers, 2016
Super 8, J. J. Abrams, 2011
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, Tim Burton, 2016
Sales points
Prize-winning novel
Book one if a 3-book series
Pitch
Living and All Grown Up tells the story of four 13-year-old friends in an alternative world where there is a border separating the living from the dead, and the war between two states has recently finished. Teenagers from the state of the living incidentally open the gate between the worlds and make friends with a child from the dead. But what if grown-ups find out about the new passage?
Synopsis
Living and All Grown Up is set in an alternative world where there is a border separating the living from the dead. There has been a war between the two; however, some forms of communication and cooperation exist.
Nicka, Marina, Leva, and Gosha are 13 years old, they live in a strictly ordered society of the living in the aftermath of the bloody war with the dead which split the known world in two. They are taught that the dead are the enemy, every contact is forbidden and labeled treason. However, technologies, consumer goods, gossip, and movies trickle into the world of the living, and are of great value and interest. What’s across the Border? Should the teenagers trust the adults that all the dead are evil? Or is there more to this black and white order of things?
When the friends stumble upon an opportunity to communicate with a teenage dead how can they resist? They become friends with Mike who showers them with knowledge of the world of the dead. New gadgets, languages and jargon, new interpretation of the known historical events and social order – Nicka, Marina, Leva, and Gosha are sponging the information. How come their deadly enemy is just like them? He even falls in love with Marina although this is strictly forbidden – there is no time in the world of the dead and Mike will never age.
This seemingly innocent exchange and blossoming friendships turn out to be a trap. The group of friends incidentally help to breach the border and come under attack of zombies and other evil creatures. Their interaction has been flawed all along – scheming adults have been trying to use it to gain control of both worlds. Will they be able to restore the balance?
This is an adventure and action-packed novel about growing up and making one’s mind, making tricky decisions and taking responsibility. Each of the teenagers becomes a hero in their own way, not just by fighting zombies but also making everyday choices that will define their future selves. With likable characters and recognizable conflicts, the novel can be read as a tense YA horror and espionage thriller or a musing on the everlasting issues of death, loyalty and freedom of will.
About the author
Sergey Kuznetsov is a Paris-based writer, journalist, entrepreneur and educator. Kuznetsov took part in forming post-Soviet independent journalism in Russia, focusing mainly on movies and literature, and in 2011 became the only Russian journalist having received a Knight Fellowship in journalism from Stanford University. Sergey contributes to American periodicals, including The New York Times, The Huffington Post and others.
Kuznetsov is the author of a dozen of books of prose, including The Butterfly Skin, a thriller published in 12 languages, including English, German and French, and Round Dance of Water, published
by Dalkey Archive in the English language in the end of 2022. Kuznetsov received numerous nominations to the prestigious literary prizes and was a finalist for the Big Book Award and New Horizons Award, for the best novel in sci-fi and fantasy.