Indoor Girl

In this modern day Rapunzel story, fifteen year old Keysa’s captivity is much more complicated than it is in fairytales. For starters, it's caused by her mother’s paralyzing agoraphobia. But when a termite infestation eats its way into their home, an unlikely prince arrives in the form of the nephew of an exterminator who is in need of his own kind of saving. Weaving together a thread of Jenny Han-esque romance with the mental health themes of Picture Us in the Light, Indoor Girl is a dark, screwball romance that simultaneously explores the messy tendrils of mother-daughter relationships amid mental illness, grief, and the push-and-pull of growing up. Keysa is trapped. Ever since her father’s death four years ago, fifteen-year-old Keysa Perrault’s life has shrunk to the confines of her books, Pinterest boards, and bittersweet memories of when her mom’s extreme agoraphobia didn’t keep them both from leaving the house. But when termites chew their way into Keysa’s bedroom, they bring DJ Kim, a high school volleyball star who’s grieving a recent death of his own and serving time with his exterminator uncle. And despite DJ’s closed-off attitude and plummeting GPA, Keysa can’t help but see in him a rare window of opportunity for freedom. Desperate for a night out of her bubble, Keysa and DJ strike a deal: she’ll tutor him, if he’ll take her out on late-night joyrides. Keysa can be briefly free—after her mom has taken her cold medicine, that is. As Keysa and DJ’s relationship grows deeper and more complicated, Keysa begins to suffocate under the weight of her dual life. Soon, she’s faced with two options: she can either stay indoors, keep DJ a secret forever, and bury her dreams of going off to college—or she can fly in the face of her mother’s ever-tightening rules and expose the truth, risking her mother’s mental health and her own freedom along the way. From debut author Krystle Brantzeg, Indoor Girl is a brilliant and relatable screwball romance that simultaneously explores the messy tendrils of mother-daughter relationships amid mental illness, grief, and the push and pull of growing up.