A Cigarette Lit Backwards : A Novel

Set in the punk-rock scene of the early 2000s, a sharply observed, darkly comic literary novel about how far one young woman will go to find acceptanceKat is dying to be accepted by the North Carolina punks; she is totally desperate to seem cool. At a punk show, she ends up backstage with a rock star and gets noticed by a photojournalist. And then—a dream come true for Kat—her reputation skyrockets the next morning when an online magazine publishes pictures of her backstage, deeming her a groupie icon. But to maintain this notoriety, Kat makes a series of devastating mistakes, and soon enough, she becomes unrecognizable to herself and others. The truth, as always, comes out. Kat had already lost most of her friends by then, and after the Rolling Stones story, she's got no shot at redemption so she runs off to New York City to find the journalist who started this mess in the first place. Tea Hacic-Vlahovic’s A Cigarette Lit Backwards is a sometimes funny, often brutally honest examination of growing up. It’s dark and daring, unflinchingly examining the yearning to be noticed and accepted and the lengths one will go to get there.

Set in the punk-rock scene of the early 2000s and vibrating with the intense ache of bad choices and deep longing, A Cigarette Lit Backwardsis a needle-sharp portrait of a young woman and how far she’ll go to find acceptance.

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Kat is dying to be accepted by the North Carolina punks; she is totally desperate to seem cool. At a punk show, she ends up backstage with a rock star and gets noticed by a photojournalist. And then—a dream come true for Kat—her reputation as a groupie icon skyrockets. But to maintain this notoriety, Kat makes a series of devastating choices, and soon enough, she becomes unrecognizable to herself and others.

A Cigarette Lit Backwards is a sometimes funny, often brutally honest novel about ambition and self-discovery and how a world of glamour and cool exerts its bold and breathless pull. In prose that seduces, glitters, and exhilarates, Tea Hacic-Vlahovic has written a novel that is both a wild party and a somber reckoning, consolidating her status as a thrilling and essential new voice for our time.

“A perfect coming-of-age story—with a perfect soundtrack—that walks the fragile in-between of finding out who you are and trying not to let other people decide for you. Welcome to the party room.” —Brendan Jay Sullivan, author of Rivington was Ours: Lady Gaga, the Lower East Side, and the Prime of Our Lives