Waiting for No One - Summary

Waiting for No One

Waiting for No One (Red Deer Press, fall, 2010): This Young Adult novel is a sequel to Brenna’s highly acclaimed Wild Orchid and follows Taylor Jane back to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, where she enters university and applies for a job. It includes in its early chapters the title story from Something To Hang On To, Brenna’s collection of young adult short stories (Thistledown Press, 2009).

Teens will identify with Taylor’s struggle for independence and self-control, and empathize as she outlines the ways that her Asperger’s Syndrome—both a curse and a blessing—affects her daily life. Connecting with Waiting for Godot, an absurdist play by Samuel Beckett, Taylor explores the fear of solitary existence while reaching out to a world she works hard to understand. She determines that waiting around for something to happen is not how she wants to live her life, and she wants the world to understand her as an individual, not as a stereotypical person with special needs or a rare wild flower—the metaphor used in Wild Orchid. A cameo performance by Taylor’s new gerbil—Harold Pinter—adds further emphasis to themes of existentialism and humour in this first person journal of Taylor’s life. For ages 12 and up.

Watch for a third title in the Wild Orchid series, The White Bicycle, which is currently pending publication.