#It'sAWonderfulLife

Abstract

In the year 2045, Hattiesburg, Mississippi, high school senior Lainey Ann Wood is facing dark days. Her mom is sick, she’s not on speaking terms with her best friend, her ex is being a tool and climate change is irreversible to the point where half the population of the Lower Thirteen United States must migrate to The Upper Thirty-Five--while the remaining half has no choice but to slowly perish in the increasing heat. Sick people can't migrate and Lainey has committed to staying with her mom. They are officially members of The Cooked, but at least they have each other. When her mother suddenly passes away, however, Lainey, stuck in the doomed lower states, sees no reason to exist in a world where the future is nothing but bleak. She attempts to take her own life. In this, her darkest hour, her magical guardian appears. He orchestrates a Christmas-Carol-style peek at her past, present and future, hoping to show Lainey how valued she has always been, how needed she is now and what possibilities still lie ahead in a world this eff'd up. Lainey also discovers that once her guardian--an elderly friend of the family and her English teacher--dies, she will be the last magical being on Earth. It is a heavy burden. But if she can find the will to go on, Lainey's magic just may save the world from itself.