The Ending You Deserve
Do Revenge meets Where Sleeping Girls Lie in this dark-academia-stripped-bare novel — for readers of Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé, Holly Jackson, and Ava Reid, and fans of Promising Young Woman and Killing Eve.
Ava Quirk thought getting into Faraday, the fine arts private school of her dreams, could be a fresh start. Instead, her grades have tanked and her scholarship hangs by a thread.
Near failing out, Ava is presented with a deal. Her student advisor, local legend Peter Barden, agrees to pass her if she befriends Love Solt, a brilliant but guarded classmate. Barden says Love is troubled and could use some guidance. In turn, Ava can soak up Love's academic prowess. If Ava does this — and gets him a copy of the top-secret novel Love's writing — he'll pass Ava. It's an odd ask, but Ava's desperate.
At first, friendship comes easy, trust is built, and she's right where she needs to be to deliver on Barden's ask. But as time goes by, she realizes she's falling for Love, and the idea of betraying her is killing Ava. Then she reads Love's novel…
If the devastating truth Love has penned gets out, many lives will be ruined. But if the secret stays hidden, many lives will be at risk. Ava faces an impossible choice: turn her back on what she's found, or close the book on a sinister villain who has gone unchecked for far too long.
Praise for Rabbit and Juliet
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“VERDICT Gritty and gripping; give to fans of Courtney Summers and Mindy McGinnis immediately.”
Allie Stevens at School Library Journal, starred Review
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“Hand this darkly comic coming-of-age psychological thriller revenge fantasy to readers who love movies like Bottoms and Do Revenge.”'
Elizabeth Bevington for Booklist
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“A thrilling ride into the heart of a dangerous friendship.”
Kirkus Reviews, starred review
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“You wrote a book about what now?”
my mom, probably
Upcoming Events
July 25th, 2026, Y’All Midwest, Aurora Illinois. More details and how to buy tickets here.
September 1st, Launch reading at Anderson’s bookstore, Naperville, Illinois — more details to come!
About Rebecca Stafford
I write smart, funny, complicated characters who are figuring themselves out — sometimes in the messiest way possible. My debut YA novel, Rabbit and Juliet, follows a grieving teenage girl who falls into an intense, dangerous love while plotting revenge on the predatory boys in her small Georgia town. My second novel, The Ending You Deserve (Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins, September 2026), follows Ava Quirk, a scholarship student at a prestigious arts school who takes a strange deal from her charming advisor — get close to the brilliant, reclusive Love Solt and deliver her secret novel — and discovers what’s really hiding inside Faraday's beautiful campus. I'm also a poet whose collections — Fair Copy, Vow, Gloss, and Generic Husband — explore women navigating power in intimate relationships; my poems have appeared in Poetry Magazine, The New Yorker, and Best American Poetry, and I'm a two-time Pushcart Prize winner. I’ve taught writing for twenty years, currently as a Professor at North Central College. You can read my writing about sustainable creative practices for neurodivergent writers at my Substack, Fire Escape. I live in the greater Chicago area with my family, two cats, and a garden that reliably becomes a morass of creeping green horror.
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