Then Everything Happens at Once

“A pleasurable, emotional, and authentic coming-of-age story.” - Kirkus Reviews

“Achingly relatable and gloriously messy, Then Everything Happens nails the all-important journey of learning how to get out of your own way. Girard writes capital-F Feelings with true mastery.” - Dahlia Adler, author of Cool for the Summer

“M-E Girard gifts us with a complex heroine who is vulnerable, funny, passionate, and always curious. This novel asks all the tough questions we must grapple with as we come of age and reminds us beautifully that the answers start to come when we learn to love ourselves.” - Abdi Nazemian, author of Stonewall Honor Book Like a Love Story and The Chandler Legacies

“An honest and compelling tour de force about finding yourself and your first love–in more than one person–and questioning yourself every step of the way.” - Mindy McGinnis, award-winning author of The Female of the Species

“Baylee’s witty, down-to-earth voice, oscillating between self-confidence and self-loathing, is utterly real and compelling. She’s someone who thinks a lot about rules and risks, and Girard’s astute choice to set the novel as the coronavirus pandemic begins to unfold means that the stakes for Baylee’s choices about what rules to follow and what risks to take are extremely high. I read this book in one sitting–I had to find out where Baylee’s choices would take her!” - Sara Ryan, author of Lambda Literary Award finalist Empress of the World

Give to high school readers seeking stories about finding your self-worth. - School Library Journal

Girard (Girl Mans Up) portrays Baylee’s mistakes and triumphs with nuance while tackling negative self-talk and anti-fat rhetoric amid unprecedented crisis in this honest and believable portrait of a teen navigating her sexual awakening. - Publishers Weekly

“Girard’s strength as a writer is in giving Baylee voice as an outwardly stronger person whose inner thoughts exist in a state of turmoil. The character and story are highly relatable and potentially validating for readers who are figuring out their identities or those who could benefit from their own tumultuous teenage experiences–especially during the pandemic–being externally validated.” - Horn Book Magazine

M-E Girard’s debut, Girl Mans Up, won the Lambda Literary Award and was a finalist for the William C. Morris Award. She lives just outside of Toronto, Canada, where she splits her time between writing YA fiction, being a mom to a toddler, and working as a registered nurse. M-E dedicated the bulk of her nursing career to working with special-needs kids, and more recently she was an ER and ICU nurse during the first waves of the pandemic. A 2013 and 2015 Lambda Literary Fellow, M-E is a proud feminist who is endlessly fascinated with what it means to be a girl–especially a queer, fat girl.

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