BEFORE WE WERE BLUE

OUT NOW!

Pitched as Netflix’s CHEER meets “Girl, Interrupted”

Get healthy on their own—or stay sick together?

At Recovery and Relief, a treatment center for girls with eating disorders, the first thing Shoshana Winnick does is attach herself to vibrant but troubled Rowan Parish. Shoshana—a cheerleader on a hit reality TV show—was admitted for starving herself to ensure her growth spurt didn’t ruin her infamous tumbling skills. Rowan, on the other hand, has known anorexia her entire life, thanks to her mother’s “chew and spit” guidance. Through the drudgery and drama of treatment life, Shoshana and Rowan develop a fierce intimacy—and for Rowan, a budding infatuation, that neither girl expects.

As “Gray Girls,” patients in the center’s Gray plan, Shoshana and Rowan are constantly under the nurses’ watchful eyes. They dream of being Blue, when they will enjoy more freedom and the knowledge that their days at the center are numbered. But going home means separating and returning to all the challenges they left behind. The closer Shoshana and Rowan become, the more they cling to each other—and their destructive patterns. Ultimately, the girls will have to choose: their recovery or their relationship.

Praise for Before We Were Blue

BEFORE WE WERE BLUE is a 2022 IPPY gold medalist in Young Adult Fiction and a 2021 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards Finalist!

"The book balances tensions of class, antisemitism, and sexuality in complex and compassionate ways. A gut-wrenching and cathartic page-turner about identity, desire, and the strength it takes to heal." —Kirkus Reviews

"The story stands to be a balm for those wrangling their own traumas, pains, and loneliness . . . which teaches its heroines that their pain, though real and worthy of respect, doesn’t have to last forever." —Foreword Reviews

"Will be popular with readers who like to read about teens having to combat great personal challenges." —School Library Journal

“With an unflinching and taut accuracy, E.J. Schwartz writes the darkest truths of girlhood, of the unique intimacy that binds young women as they grow into themselves. Full to the brim with bodies and secrets and envy and desire, BEFORE WE WERE BLUE reminds readers that beneath society's stereotypical teenager, the lipgloss and gel pens and TikToks and stuffed bras, exist angry, upset, famished girls, all so desperate and so deserving of being heard."—Diana Clarke, author of Thin Girls

“A startlingly frank, deeply compassionate story about the complicated journey of living with eating disorders, E.J. Schwartz pulls no punches. Before We Were Blue casts a powerful emotional spell!”—Adam Sass, award-winning author of Surrender Your Sons

“Before We Were Blue is brilliant, bold, and intoxicating. This novel will break your heart and then build you a new one. A dazzling, gritty, and unforgettable debut.” —Melody Moezzi, author of Haldol and Hyacinths: A Bipolar Life and The Rumi Prescription: How an Ancient Mystic Poet Changed My Modern Manic Life

“Make room for E.J. Schwartz on your list of favorite authors. Before We Were Blue is brilliantly stacked with everything a reader could want; it’s dark, tense, honest, and thrilling. And romantic in its insistence that even over the rockiest terrain, where girls go, friendships follow. An addictive and transcendent debut.” —Nina de Gramont, author of Gossip of the Starlings and The Christie Affair

Content Warning

CW for eating disorders, sexual assault, antisemitism, and suicide. If you would like page numbers or further information, please let me know.