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The Strange Fascinations of Noah Hypnotik

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Paperback
$10.99 US
5.63"W x 8.25"H x 1.13"D   | 14 oz | 24 per carton
On sale May 21, 2019 | 448 Pages | 9780425288870
Age 14 and up | Grade 9 & Up
Reading Level: Lexile 880L
"As he did in his fantastic debut Mosquitoland, David Arnold again shows a knack for getting into the mind of an eccentric teenager in clever, poignant fashion." —USA Today
 
This is Noah Oakman → sixteen, Bowie believer, concise historian, disillusioned swimmer, son, brother, friend.
 
Then Noah → gets hypnotized.
 
Now Noah → sees changes: his mother has a scar on her face that wasn’t there before; his old dog, who once walked with a limp, is suddenly lithe; his best friend, a lifelong DC Comics disciple, now rotates in the Marvel universe. Subtle behaviors, bits of history, plans for the future—everything in Noah’s world has been rewritten. Everything except his Strange Fascinations . . . 

A stunning surrealist portrait, The Strange Fascinations of Noah Hypnotik is a story about all the ways we hurt our friends without knowing it, and all the ways they stick around to save us.
"As he did in his fantastic debut Mosquitoland, David Arnold again shows a knack for getting into the mind of an eccentric teenager in clever, poignant fashion . . . An artfully crafted tale about a boy finding his groove amid the cacophony of adolescence." —USA Today

"An unpredictable, Vonnegut-esque examination of identity, friendship, and forgiveness . . . Unique and surprisingly poignant." —Chicago Tribune

"Shivery and vaguely psychedelic . . . This is the kind of book that will appeal strongly to teenagers like Noah who are just starting to think about what they want from their futures, but it’s also immensely enjoyable to read as an adult. It’s a funny, eerie, beautifully textured book, a strange fascination in and of itself." —Vox

"Don't just pick this one up for its brilliantly bright cover. This book is equal parts odd, imaginative, and insightful." —BuzzFeed

"A surreal, memorable examination of how our relationships can both hurt and ultimately save us." —Teen Vogue

"The Strange Fascinations of Noah Hypnotik is an epic wonder that only David Arnold could have dreamed up. You'll marvel at every glowing page as powerhouse Arnold tells a blazing, transporting story of love and history and mystery and more.” —Adam Silvera, New York Times bestselling author of More Happy Than Not and They Both Die at the End

"A breathtaking, mind-bending tour de force that probes fate and forgiveness, history of the human connection, and what it means to live. Ambitious, wise, hilarious, and yearning, The Strange Fascinations of Noah Hypnotik is David Arnold at his exuberant best." —Kelly Loy Gilbert, author of Picture Us in the Light and Morris Award finalist Conviction

★ "Arnold has written an in-your-face validation of the power of real and honest friendship, guaranteed to mesmerize readers and leave them altered." —Booklist, starred review

★ "This is a comedic coming-of-age tale with plenty of pop culture and literary references and the snarky, casual, and observational feel of a mumblecore comedy. Supporting characters are fully fleshed out and hilarious. A weird, compelling teen-angst trip that will appeal to fans of John Corey Whaley." —School Library Journalstarred review

"An incredible, eye-opening read . . . Arnold’s characters shine in their realistic relationships and in their relatable fears and shortcomings. Be ready for a game changer of a novel—and a lot of reflection." —Romantic Times

"Boom! That's the sound of your mind exploding when you listen to this audiobook." —AudioFileEarphones Award Winner

"Arnold’s hipster wit and wickedly clever plotting make for an absorbing, stylized romp . . . Holden Caulfield’s reluctance to grow up mixes with Andrew Smith’s sharp-eyed, sharp-tongued narrators to create a character altogether Arnold’s own." —BCCB

"Compelling." —Kirkus Reviews

"Singular and brainy and deeply intriguing, with an ending that devastates . . . The book’s shattering payoff takes a primary rule of storytelling and busts through it like Kool-Aid Man, and the results are electrifying." —B&N Teen Blog

"Arnold’s characters are seeking higher meaning but he manages to keep the story from drifting into the esoteric by creating moments of true tenderness. Noah’s own writing and his internal exploration propel the narrative forward, allowing Arnold to explore the stagnancy of a predetermined path and unanswered questions about reality, interpretation, and imagination." —Publishers Weekly

"Whip-smart dialogue, fun pop-culture asides, endlessly endearing and fully realized characters and a hypnotic mystery..."BookPage

 A Barnes & Noble Best Book of 2018  A Teen Vogue Best Book for Teens 2018  A Vox Best Book of 2018  A BookPage Best Book of 2018  A Chicago Public Library Best Book of 2018   A Booklist Best Fiction for Young Adults 2019  A YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults 2019 
© Ayna Lorenzo
David Arnold is the New York Times bestselling author of Mosquitoland, I Loved You in Another Life, The Electric Kingdom, Kids of Appetite, and The Strange Fascinations of Noah Hypnotik. He has won the Southern Book Prize and the Great Lakes Book Award, and was named a Publishers Weekly Flying Start for his debut. His books have been translated into over a dozen languages. He lives in Lexington, Kentucky, with his wife and son. Learn more at davidarnoldbooks.com and follow him on Instagram @IAmDavidArnold. View titles by David Arnold
Chapter 1 
that sadness feels heavier underwater
 
I’ll hold my breath and tell you what I mean: I first discov­ered the Fading Girl two months and two days ago, soon after summer began dripping its smugly sunny smile all over the place. I was with Alan, per usual. We had fallen down the YouTube rabbit hole, which was a thing we did from time to time. Generally speaking, I hate YouTube, mostly because Alan is all, I just have to show you this one thing, yo, but in­evitably one thing becomes seventeen things, and before I know it, I’m watching a sea otter operate a vending machine, thinking, Where the fuck did I go wrong? And look: I am not immune to the allure of the sea otter, but at a certain point a guy has to wonder about all the life decisions he’s made that have landed him on a couch, watching a glorified weasel press H9 for a bag of SunChips.
 
Quiet, and a little sad, but in a real way, drifting through the Rosa-Haas pool—I fucking love it here.
 
I would live here.
 
For the sake of precision: the Fading Girl video is a rapid time-lapse compilation of photographs clocking in at just over twelve minutes. It’s entitled One Face, Forty Years: An Examination of the Aging Process, and underneath it a cap­tion reads: “Daily self-portraits from 1977 to 2015. I got tired.” (I love that last part, as if the Fading Girl felt the need to explain why she hadn’t quite made it the full forty years.) In the beginning, she’s probably in her early twenties, with blonde hair, long and shimmery, and bright eyes like a sun­rise through a waterfall. At about the halfway mark the room changes, which I can only assume means she moved, but in the background, her possessions remain the same: a framed watercolor of mountains, a porcelain Chewbacca figurine, and elephants everywhere. Statues, posters, T-shirts—the Fading Girl had an elephant obsession, safe to say. She’s al­ways indoors, always alone, and—other than the move, and a variety of haircuts—she looks the same in every photo: no smile, staring straight into the camera, every day for forty years.
 
Always the same, until: changes.
 
Okay, I have to breathe now.
 
I love this moment: breaking the surface, inhale, wet hair in the hot sun.
 
Alan is all, “Dude.”
 
The moment would be better alone, to be honest.
 
“That was like a record,” says Val. “You okay?”
 
A few more deep breaths, a quick smile, and . . .
 
I love this moment even more: dipping beneath the sur­face. Something about being underwater allows me to feel at a higher capacity—the silence and weightlessness, I think.
 
It’s my favorite thing about swimming.
 
The earlier shots are scanned-in Polaroids, but as the time lapse progresses and the resolution of the photos increases, the brightness of the Fading Girl begins to diminish: little by little, the hair thins; little by little, the eyes dim; little by little, the face withers, the skin droops, the bright young wa­terfall becomes a darkened millpond, one more victim in the septic tank of aging. And it doesn’t make me sad so much as leave an impression of sadness, like watching a stone sink but never hit bottom.
 
Every day for forty years.
 
I’ve watched the video hundreds of times now: at night before bed, in the morning before school, in the library dur­ing lunch, on my phone during class, in my head during the in-betweens, I hum the Fading Girl like a song over and over again, and every time it ends I swear I’ll never watch it again. But like the saddest human boomerang, I always come back.
 
Twelve minutes of staring at your screen and watching a person die. It’s not violent. It’s not immoral or shameful; nothing is done to her that isn’t done to all of us, in turn. It’s called An Examination of the Aging Process, but I call bullshit. That girl isn’t aging; she’s fading. And I can’t look away.
 
There it is, the inevitable shoulder tap.
 
Time to join the land of the breathing.

About

"As he did in his fantastic debut Mosquitoland, David Arnold again shows a knack for getting into the mind of an eccentric teenager in clever, poignant fashion." —USA Today
 
This is Noah Oakman → sixteen, Bowie believer, concise historian, disillusioned swimmer, son, brother, friend.
 
Then Noah → gets hypnotized.
 
Now Noah → sees changes: his mother has a scar on her face that wasn’t there before; his old dog, who once walked with a limp, is suddenly lithe; his best friend, a lifelong DC Comics disciple, now rotates in the Marvel universe. Subtle behaviors, bits of history, plans for the future—everything in Noah’s world has been rewritten. Everything except his Strange Fascinations . . . 

A stunning surrealist portrait, The Strange Fascinations of Noah Hypnotik is a story about all the ways we hurt our friends without knowing it, and all the ways they stick around to save us.

Praise

"As he did in his fantastic debut Mosquitoland, David Arnold again shows a knack for getting into the mind of an eccentric teenager in clever, poignant fashion . . . An artfully crafted tale about a boy finding his groove amid the cacophony of adolescence." —USA Today

"An unpredictable, Vonnegut-esque examination of identity, friendship, and forgiveness . . . Unique and surprisingly poignant." —Chicago Tribune

"Shivery and vaguely psychedelic . . . This is the kind of book that will appeal strongly to teenagers like Noah who are just starting to think about what they want from their futures, but it’s also immensely enjoyable to read as an adult. It’s a funny, eerie, beautifully textured book, a strange fascination in and of itself." —Vox

"Don't just pick this one up for its brilliantly bright cover. This book is equal parts odd, imaginative, and insightful." —BuzzFeed

"A surreal, memorable examination of how our relationships can both hurt and ultimately save us." —Teen Vogue

"The Strange Fascinations of Noah Hypnotik is an epic wonder that only David Arnold could have dreamed up. You'll marvel at every glowing page as powerhouse Arnold tells a blazing, transporting story of love and history and mystery and more.” —Adam Silvera, New York Times bestselling author of More Happy Than Not and They Both Die at the End

"A breathtaking, mind-bending tour de force that probes fate and forgiveness, history of the human connection, and what it means to live. Ambitious, wise, hilarious, and yearning, The Strange Fascinations of Noah Hypnotik is David Arnold at his exuberant best." —Kelly Loy Gilbert, author of Picture Us in the Light and Morris Award finalist Conviction

★ "Arnold has written an in-your-face validation of the power of real and honest friendship, guaranteed to mesmerize readers and leave them altered." —Booklist, starred review

★ "This is a comedic coming-of-age tale with plenty of pop culture and literary references and the snarky, casual, and observational feel of a mumblecore comedy. Supporting characters are fully fleshed out and hilarious. A weird, compelling teen-angst trip that will appeal to fans of John Corey Whaley." —School Library Journalstarred review

"An incredible, eye-opening read . . . Arnold’s characters shine in their realistic relationships and in their relatable fears and shortcomings. Be ready for a game changer of a novel—and a lot of reflection." —Romantic Times

"Boom! That's the sound of your mind exploding when you listen to this audiobook." —AudioFileEarphones Award Winner

"Arnold’s hipster wit and wickedly clever plotting make for an absorbing, stylized romp . . . Holden Caulfield’s reluctance to grow up mixes with Andrew Smith’s sharp-eyed, sharp-tongued narrators to create a character altogether Arnold’s own." —BCCB

"Compelling." —Kirkus Reviews

"Singular and brainy and deeply intriguing, with an ending that devastates . . . The book’s shattering payoff takes a primary rule of storytelling and busts through it like Kool-Aid Man, and the results are electrifying." —B&N Teen Blog

"Arnold’s characters are seeking higher meaning but he manages to keep the story from drifting into the esoteric by creating moments of true tenderness. Noah’s own writing and his internal exploration propel the narrative forward, allowing Arnold to explore the stagnancy of a predetermined path and unanswered questions about reality, interpretation, and imagination." —Publishers Weekly

"Whip-smart dialogue, fun pop-culture asides, endlessly endearing and fully realized characters and a hypnotic mystery..."BookPage

 A Barnes & Noble Best Book of 2018  A Teen Vogue Best Book for Teens 2018  A Vox Best Book of 2018  A BookPage Best Book of 2018  A Chicago Public Library Best Book of 2018   A Booklist Best Fiction for Young Adults 2019  A YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults 2019 

Author

© Ayna Lorenzo
David Arnold is the New York Times bestselling author of Mosquitoland, I Loved You in Another Life, The Electric Kingdom, Kids of Appetite, and The Strange Fascinations of Noah Hypnotik. He has won the Southern Book Prize and the Great Lakes Book Award, and was named a Publishers Weekly Flying Start for his debut. His books have been translated into over a dozen languages. He lives in Lexington, Kentucky, with his wife and son. Learn more at davidarnoldbooks.com and follow him on Instagram @IAmDavidArnold. View titles by David Arnold

Excerpt

Chapter 1 
that sadness feels heavier underwater
 
I’ll hold my breath and tell you what I mean: I first discov­ered the Fading Girl two months and two days ago, soon after summer began dripping its smugly sunny smile all over the place. I was with Alan, per usual. We had fallen down the YouTube rabbit hole, which was a thing we did from time to time. Generally speaking, I hate YouTube, mostly because Alan is all, I just have to show you this one thing, yo, but in­evitably one thing becomes seventeen things, and before I know it, I’m watching a sea otter operate a vending machine, thinking, Where the fuck did I go wrong? And look: I am not immune to the allure of the sea otter, but at a certain point a guy has to wonder about all the life decisions he’s made that have landed him on a couch, watching a glorified weasel press H9 for a bag of SunChips.
 
Quiet, and a little sad, but in a real way, drifting through the Rosa-Haas pool—I fucking love it here.
 
I would live here.
 
For the sake of precision: the Fading Girl video is a rapid time-lapse compilation of photographs clocking in at just over twelve minutes. It’s entitled One Face, Forty Years: An Examination of the Aging Process, and underneath it a cap­tion reads: “Daily self-portraits from 1977 to 2015. I got tired.” (I love that last part, as if the Fading Girl felt the need to explain why she hadn’t quite made it the full forty years.) In the beginning, she’s probably in her early twenties, with blonde hair, long and shimmery, and bright eyes like a sun­rise through a waterfall. At about the halfway mark the room changes, which I can only assume means she moved, but in the background, her possessions remain the same: a framed watercolor of mountains, a porcelain Chewbacca figurine, and elephants everywhere. Statues, posters, T-shirts—the Fading Girl had an elephant obsession, safe to say. She’s al­ways indoors, always alone, and—other than the move, and a variety of haircuts—she looks the same in every photo: no smile, staring straight into the camera, every day for forty years.
 
Always the same, until: changes.
 
Okay, I have to breathe now.
 
I love this moment: breaking the surface, inhale, wet hair in the hot sun.
 
Alan is all, “Dude.”
 
The moment would be better alone, to be honest.
 
“That was like a record,” says Val. “You okay?”
 
A few more deep breaths, a quick smile, and . . .
 
I love this moment even more: dipping beneath the sur­face. Something about being underwater allows me to feel at a higher capacity—the silence and weightlessness, I think.
 
It’s my favorite thing about swimming.
 
The earlier shots are scanned-in Polaroids, but as the time lapse progresses and the resolution of the photos increases, the brightness of the Fading Girl begins to diminish: little by little, the hair thins; little by little, the eyes dim; little by little, the face withers, the skin droops, the bright young wa­terfall becomes a darkened millpond, one more victim in the septic tank of aging. And it doesn’t make me sad so much as leave an impression of sadness, like watching a stone sink but never hit bottom.
 
Every day for forty years.
 
I’ve watched the video hundreds of times now: at night before bed, in the morning before school, in the library dur­ing lunch, on my phone during class, in my head during the in-betweens, I hum the Fading Girl like a song over and over again, and every time it ends I swear I’ll never watch it again. But like the saddest human boomerang, I always come back.
 
Twelve minutes of staring at your screen and watching a person die. It’s not violent. It’s not immoral or shameful; nothing is done to her that isn’t done to all of us, in turn. It’s called An Examination of the Aging Process, but I call bullshit. That girl isn’t aging; she’s fading. And I can’t look away.
 
There it is, the inevitable shoulder tap.
 
Time to join the land of the breathing.