• A debut novel reminiscent of Reena Shah's Every Happiness, Heather O'Neill's Lullabies for Little Criminals and Zoë Eisenberg's Significant Others that takes us into the lives of two young women from blue-collar families as they grow up, grow apart, and face the hard consequences of their decisions
• Friendship stories are trending: this coming-of-age story will appeal to Millennial and Gen Z readers who love the "sad girl" genre, and want fiction that pushes into the uncomfortable zones of female friendship and psyche
• Exploring themes of youth, longing for the unnamable, and complex dynamics of gender, desire and power for small-town women
• Set at the start the new millennium, when manufacturing towns like Windsor, Ontario, were grappling with the changing economic realities of the early 2000s
• Explores "bubblegum misogyny" (coined by Vox writer Constance Grady) of the early 2000s when celebrity culture was marked by intense scrutiny of the female body, purity culture, and misogyny, having opposite impacts on Lucy and Sami
• Author hometown: Windsor, Ontario

Anne Baldo is the author of the story collection Morse Code for Romantics. One Day, Hard and Clear is her debut novel. Her writing has appeared in Grain, Stanchion, and Riddle Fence. She lives in Windsor, Ontario.