Very LeFreak (23 page)

Authors: Rachel Cohn

Tags: #Young Adult Fiction, #Social Themes, #Friendship, #Romance, #General, #Emotions & Feelings, #Juvenile Fiction, #Social Issues, #Love & Romance

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This book evolved out of another novel, my first, that I completed in 1996, about an online bon vivant who has to dry out from technology. This was before the proliferation of cell phones, so long ago that people used dial-up to go online. (I just heard Very gasp.) Although that original novel was never published, I’d like to thank all the members of that long-ago writing workshop group in San Francisco who were so instrumental in helping me finish it, especially our great teacher and friend Lewis Buzbee.

Fast-forward to the present, and I cannot extend enough gratitude to the folks who made this book possible: Nancy Hinkel, Allison Wortche, Jennifer Rudolph Walsh, Alicia Gordon, and all their colleagues at Knopf/Random House and WME. Thank you, thank you, thank you. And, as always, great thanks to some amazing writer friends I’ve been fortunate to call on for support while writing this book: Patricia McCormick, Jaclyn Moriarty, Eva Vives, Libba Bray, Kim Gamble, Anna Fienberg, Melina Marchetta, David Levithan, and Megan McCafferty. Finally, friends and family (you know who you are): ILY.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Rachel Cohn is the author of several novels, including the
Gingerbread, Shrimp
, and
Cupcake
series (although she doesn’t recommend you try eating these all at once), and, with David Levithan, she is the co-author of
Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist
and
Naomi and Ely’s No Kiss List
. She lives in New York City, except when she doesn’t, and is way too emotionally attached to her iPhone. Visit her on the Web at
www.rachelcohn.com
.

THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Cohn, Rachel.
Very LeFreak / Rachel Cohn.—1st ed.
p. cm.
Summary: Consumed with e-mailing, online video games, and the many distractions of her electronic gadgets, hyper-frenetic Columbia University freshman Veronica, known as Very LeFreak, enters a rehab facility for the technology-addicted after her professors and classmates stage an intervention.
eISBN: 978-0-375-89552-4
[1. Self-realization—Fiction. 2. Technology—Psychological aspects—Fiction.
3. Electronics—Psychological aspects—Fiction. 4. Rehabilitation—Fiction. 5. Columbia
University—Fiction. 6. Universities and colleges—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.C6665Ve 2010
[Fic]—dc22 2009012305

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v3.0

Table of Contents

Title Page

Dedication

Part One - The Song Diaries