• Age: 12 to 18
• Grade: 7 to 12

Grief can sometimes feel like being caught in the jaws of a great white shark.
J.C., who goes by the nickname Sharky, has been having a hard time ever since his best friend died in front of him in what might or might not have been an accident. Shell-shocked, Sharky spends countless hours holed up in his room, obsessively watching documentaries about sharks and climate change—and texting his dead friend.
Hoping a change of location will help, Sharky’s mom sends him to visit his dad on a remote island in Canada. There, Sharky meets a girl who just may show him how to live—and love—again.
Before We Go Extinct, a young adult novel by Karen Rivers tells a powerful story about grief, trauma, and friendship.
Praise for Before We Go Extinct:
“Before We Go Extinct explores the trauma of suicide from both the perspective of the one who dies and the ones who are left behind. This is a book about the importance of experiencing and ultimately overcoming grief by connecting to others who have been grief-stricken themselves.” —VOYA, starred review
"More important is the personal journey JC takes to reconnect with his father, make new friends, and recapture his sense of self along with his voice. The author skillfully pulls together the disparate parts of JC's life through his deeply felt, sometimes humorous, first-person narration. JC's voice, spoken and unspoken, rings with a note of authenticity." —Kirkus Reviews
"The story’s strength lies in JC’s thoughtful, honest contemplation of his grief. Secondary characters also add emotional depth to his story." —School Library Journal

Karen Rivers is the author of numerous novels, mostly for young adults. Her books have been nominated for a number of awards, including the Sheila A. Egoff Children's Literature Prize and the Silver Birch Award. Karen has a BA in International Relations, which makes her an asset on any trivia team that emphasizes global politics in the late 1980s or early 1990s. As a lifelong hypochondriac, she once thought she'd be a doctor but realizes now that writing is a much more sensible career choice as it allows enough time to research symptoms on Google without having to actually go to medical school. Karen lives, reads and writes in a yellow house near the beach in Victoria, British Columbia, and can almost always be found online at www.karenrivers.com.

Karen Rivers' profile page

“Before We Go Extinct explores the trauma of suicide from both the perspective of the one who dies and the ones who are left behind. This is a book about the importance of experiencing and ultimately overcoming grief by connecting to others who have been grief-stricken themselves.” —VOYA, starred review
"More important is the personal journey JC takes to reconnect with his father, make new friends, and recapture his sense of self along with his voice. The author skillfully pulls together the disparate parts of JC's life through his deeply felt, sometimes humorous, first-person narration. JC's voice, spoken and unspoken, rings with a note of authenticity." —Kirkus Reviews
"The story’s strength lies in JC’s thoughtful, honest contemplation of his grief. Secondary characters also add emotional depth to his story." —School Library Journal