From the award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of Five, Six, Seven, Nate! and Better Nate Than Ever comes a laugh-out-loud sad YA debut that's a wry and winning testament to the power of old movies and new memories-one unscripted moment at a time.
Quinn Roberts is a sixteen-year-old smart aleck and Hollywood hopeful whose only worry used to be writing convincing dialogue for the movies he made with his sister Annabeth. Of course, that was all before-before Quinn stopped going to school, before his mom started sleeping on the sofa...and before Annabeth was killed in a car accident.
Enter Geoff, Quinn's best friend who insists it's time that Quinn came out-at least from hibernation. One haircut later, Geoff drags Quinn to his first college party, where instead of nursing his pain, he meets a guy-a hot one-and falls hard. What follows is an upside-down week in which Quinn begins imagining his future as a screenplay that might actually have a happily-ever-after ending-if, that is, he can finally step back into the starring role of his own life story.

A raw nerve of a book--so perfectly tender and funny and true. My heart now belongs to The Great American Whatever. Officially. Completely. --Becky Albertalli, author of Simon Vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda
Smart, funny, sexy and deeply affecting. I'll read anything Tim Federle writes. --Meg Rosoff, author of How I Live Now
The Great American Whatever knocked me out. Tim Federle writes with a rare voice original, authentic, engaging. --Rob Thomas, author of Rats Saw God and creator of Veronica Mars
A raw nerve of a book so perfectly tender and funny and true. My heart now belongs to The Great American Whatever. Officially. Completely. --Becky Albertalli, author of Simon Vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda
Smart, funny, sexy and deeply affecting. I ll read anything Tim Federle writes. --Meg Rosoff, author of How I Live Now

Tim Federle is a prolific scribe whose breezy wit isn't bound to a single genre (Huffington Post). Tim's award-winning novels include The New York Times Notable Books The Great American Whatever and the Nate series-which Lin-Manuel Miranda called a wonderful evocation of what it's like to be a theater kid. Tim cowrote both the Tony-nominated Broadway musical Tuck Everlasting, and the Golden Globe and Oscar-nominated Best Animated Feature Ferdinand, starring John Cena and Kate McKinnon. A native of San Francisco who grew up in Pittsburgh, Tim now divides his time between New York and the internet (@TimFederle).