Not With A Bang

Long-listed for EPL’s Alberta Readers’ Choice Award 2013

Nominee for Canadian Authors’ Association Exporting Alberta Award 2013

"Not With a Bang accentuates the power of words to heal and connect…..a genuine, thought-provoking, and poignant novel." - Quill & Quire

"Gail Sidonie Sobat evokes a sense of teenage angst rife within today's society and so prevalent in the source material: T.S. Eliot's The Hollow Man. [Not With a Bang] is riddled with a variety of classic literature infused in such a playfully innovative format. Sobat's framing device of Jan's bad dreams is a captivating mélange of past and present events. The use of powerful and active verbs, concise and poetic pacing of prose, allows the words do the heavy lifting, keeping the reader engaged. - CM Magazine

"The intertextual use of literature and popular songs in this story is skillful, believable, and fun. It also serves to highlight Jan’s evolving talent and personal insight as well as his relation ships with Al and his girlfriend Jodi. Author Sobat has done a commendable job here." - Resource Links

“Gail Sidonie Sobat is an expert in addressing critical issues for teens in uncharacteristic story lines.  Her teens are always real (though not always likeable) with authentic voices, likely taken from her vast experiences as a teacher and writing mentor for YouthWrite, a camp for young writers.  She eloquently tackled homosexuality and homophobia in Chance to Dance for You (Great Plains, 2011) and anorexia and mental illness in Gravity Journal (Great Plains, 2008) and now suggests readers think about drug use and euthanasia as embedded issues.  Without forcing her own ideas on her readers, Gail Sidonie Sobat allows glimpses into worlds that some readers may never experience, thereby increasing awareness, or that some have experienced, thereby providing validation for their realities.  Not With a Bang is neither far-fetched nor commonplace but insightful, challenging to views usually long-held, and sublimely powerful.  I've learned never to expect less from Gail Sidonie Sobat; I've never been disappointed.” - CanLit for Little Canadians