“Delightful… This book works because it’s got a great protagonist… Bighearted and retro in its setting and music, this novel has the bouncy rhythm of classic television… Blau is a deft hand with comic juxtaposition and domestic fantasy. She keeps it light, she keeps it moving and she’s got terrific visuals… Blau’s story is so clear and bright that you can watch the movie in your mind.”
-The New York Times
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"The best book of the summer!"
-InStyle Magazine
"This musical tale will take you back, [and] make you crank up the '70s music."
-Good Morning America
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“This novel is an absolute delight! Mary Jane is the best friend, sister, daughter we’d all love to have. A beautifully written and life-affirming coming-of-age tale.”
-Jane Delury, author of The Balcony
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“MARY JANE is that rare thing: An utterly charming, absurdly delightful novel that also makes you think deeply about the world around you. Jessica Anya Blau's clear-eyed wit reminded me of Curtis Sittenfeld and Laurie Colwin, and, of course, Jane Austen.”
-Joanna Rakoff, author of My Salinger Year
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“I dare you to find a more winning novel than Jessica Anya Blau’s Mary Jane. Filled with humor and sharpness and so much light, this book introduces an amazing cast of characters, all so unique and finely observed, held together by the clarity of Mary Jane’s voice. It evokes those rare moments when your world is on the precipice of change, almost a dream, and how thrilling it is to push your way toward something new.”
-Kevin Wilson, author of Nothing to see Here
“The experience of reading Jessica Anya Blau’s Mary Jane is a lot like eating quality candy: super enjoyable, crazy good. I am sad to have finished it.”
– Marcy Dermansky, author of Very Nice
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“With Mary Jane, we indulge in everything that makes Jessica Anya Blau one of my favorite novelists today: Humanity, humor, compassion, utter transformation and the irresistible tease of what might be. I loved this book.”
-Greg Bardsley, author of Cash Out and The Bob Watson
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“The novel Mary Jane gives us a fabulously updated female version of Holden Caulfield, a coming of age story of political and sexual awakening unlike any other. It grabbles with all kinds of dysfunction--prejudice, addiction and, of course (if you know Blau's work), rock-n-roll. Unique, moving, and funny as shit.”
-Paula Bomer, author of Tante Eva
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“This may be the best book about an adolescent since The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Fourteen-year-old Mary Jane, straight as a ruler, gets a summer job as a nanny to sweet Izzie, whose psychiatrist father is providing live-in therapy to a recovering rock star. Mary Jane and her cast of characters will carry you to bliss on every page. It’s Baltimore in the 70s and Jessica Anya Blau gets everything right. Buy it for someone you love.”
-Michael Elias, author of You Can Go Home Now, co-writer of The Jerk
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"This novel is a week at the beach with rock stars, it’s a three-part harmony at a kitchen table, it’s finding a family where you fit in. Jessica Anya Blau is a smart, generous, sensitive storyteller, and Mary Jane is a loving, sexy, funny, and beautiful book."
-Gabriel Brownstein, author of The Open Heart Club
"I LOVE Jessica Anya Blau's novel. MARY JANE is about an oppressed teenager being given a jolt of life and joy by an eccentric found family of therapists, a child, a rock star and a movie star in the 1970s. It's funny, sad, sharp, charming, surprising, big-hearted and true both to its characters and its time. If you have ever sung along to a hit on the radio, in any decade, then you will devour MARY JANE at 45rpm. "
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-Nick Hornby
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