The Knockout Queen Vintage Contemporaries

"Full of verve... Revelatory." 'Los Angeles TimesA dazzling and darkly comic novel of love, violence, and friendship in the California suburbsBunny Lampert is the princess of North Shore''beautiful, tall, blond, with a rich real-estate-developer father and a swimming pool in her backyard. Michael'''with a ponytail down his back and a septum piercing''lives with his aunt in the cramped stucco cottage next door. When Bunny catches Michael smoking in her yard, he discovers that her life is not as perfect as it seems. At six foot three, Bunny towers over their classmates. Even as she dreams of standing out and competing in the Olympics, she is desperate to fit in, to seem normal, and to get a boyfriend, all while hiding her father's escalating alcoholism. Michael has secrets of his own. At home and at school Michael pretends to be straight, but at night he tries to understand himself by meeting men online for anonymous encounters that both thrill and scare him. When Michael falls in love for the first time, a vicious strain of gossip circulates and a terrible, brutal act becomes the defining feature of both his and Bunny's futures'''and of their friendship. With storytelling as intoxicating as it is intelligent, Rufi Thorpe has created a tragic and unflinching portrait of identity, a fascinating examination of our struggles to exist in our bodies, and an excruciatingly beautiful story of two humans aching for connection.

A Finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award for FictionAn InStyle Best Book of the YearA Refinery29 Best Book of the Year By the end of high school, Bunny Lampert is 6’3 with the abs of a ninja turtle and the face of a boy angel. Her dad has chaotic salesman energy and her mom is dead. But from the outside, Bunny seems to have it all?—she’s blonde, rich, and an Olympic volleyball hopeful. Michael??—who has a ponytail and a septum piercing, works at Rite-Aid, and has a secret Grindr?—lives with his aunt in the cramped cottage next door to Bunny’s McMansion. When Bunny catches Michael smoking in her yard, he discovers that her life is not as perfect as it seems. Their friendship is as improbable as it is irresistible, but when Michael falls in love for the first time, a vicious strain of gossip circulates and a terrible, brutal act becomes the defining feature of both his and Bunny’s futures??. A beautiful and darkly comic book about doing things you didn’t mean to do, wanting things you wish you didn’t want, and loving people you can’t afford to love.