Overview

Coming-of-age and teen romance collide in a bodacious and authentic journey through the 1980s...In February 1986, once-invisible sophomore Avery ""Ace"" Craig suddenly becomes the most magnetic guy at Hancock High. Armed with a Walkman and mixtapes packed with everything from A-Ha to ZZ Top, Avery charges toward manhood with confidence, charisma, and a genius IQ-but has no clue how to handle what's next. During a school trip to D.C., Avery shakes hands with President Reagan, gets a glimpse of his future, and has a sexual awakening, setting off a chain reaction. Girls notice him, his hormones detonate, and his friends are clueless. With no adults to turn to, Ace must navigate the thrilling, terrifying terrain alone-with only a Boy Scout Handbook, his instincts, and a Princess Leia poster to guide him. Bodaciously True & Totally Awesome, Episode I: Bad Boy, the product of ten years' relentless craftsmanship, takes an immersive, sensual and unflinching look at teen experience and relationships. A saga about the freedom, romance, and epic adventure of suburban life in Cold War America, Bodaciously is for readers seeking a time machine back to the last great American decade. --- Episode I: Bad Boy launches an epic 9-book episodic novel, with new episodes every 12 weeks: True Blue - 4/2026 Danger Zone - 7/2026 Secret Lovers - 10/2026 Yankee Rose - 12/2026 Invisible Touch - 3/2027 Modern Woman - 5/2027 True Colors - 9/2027 Big Time - 11/2027

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9781965999011

Table of Contents

Reviews

Advance Praise for the Bodaciously Series: ""...a standout. ... the 1980s comes to life in a way few other novels could achieve.... Libraries looking for coming-of-age stories that bring the 1980s to life ... will find Bodaciously ... an outstanding choice. Highly recommended ... a different coming-of-age novel that simmers with discovery."" -D. Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review ""A comical teen coming-of-age novel set in the 1980s from author [Chris] Orcutt. ... Ace is cool. [He] must navigate the intricacies of teenage crushes and fooling around while also pulling off seemingly impossible stunts such as making President Reagan laugh. ... fast paced, steady action on the page. ... A light-hearted, swift adventure that sees its young protagonist woo just about everyone he encounters."" -Kirkus Reviews ""[Bodaciously] is a coming-of-age story, a love story, an adventure story, and an odyssey; it's what you'd get if you put War and Peace, The Odyssey, and Fast Times at Ridgemont High into a supercollider; it's an epic-length tale about an age group that has seldom been taken seriously in literature-teenagers-and it's written for the routinely disregarded generation of adults who lived it."" -Summer Jensen, Ph.D., from the Foreword ""As Ace himself might say, 'Awesome, Dude.'"" -Blueink Review *Starred Review*

Author Information

Chris Orcutt is an American novelist and fiction writer with over thirty years of writing experience and 20 books in his oeuvre, including his latest-a 9-book episodic novel about teens in the 1980s, Bodaciously True & Totally Awesome. The first book of Bodaciously-Episode I: Bad Boy-will be published on January 20, 2026. Born in Maine, he has spent most of his life in New York. He attended college in Boston, graduating summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, with a degree in philosophy. His professional writing career began at the Taconic Newspapers (where he was honored by the New York Press Association), followed by freelance reporting for the Poughkeepsie Journal, New York's oldest newspaper. In his 20s and early 30s, while honing his craft as a fiction writer, Orcutt earned a living as a high school American Studies teacher, college writing instructor, and speechwriter. His earlier fiction-including the Dakota Stevens Mystery Series and One Hundred Miles from Manhattan-has earned praise from Publishers Weekly and Kirkus Reviews. For over a decade, Orcutt immersed himself in '80s teen culture and shunned the internet in monastic devotion to his magnum opus. Writing drafts on typewriters and vintage computers, blasting everything from A-Ha to ZZ Top, and drinking enough coffee to fill a swimming pool (seriously), he set out to craft an authentic and fearless exploration of the suburban teenage experience in 1980s America. The result prompted one cultural historian to dub him ""Lord of the '80s"" and another ""The American Tolstoy."" He loathes bad writing, stoplights, Grammarly, and pretentious people-but loves old movies, Peanuts comics, Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee, and cross-country skiing. Orcutt lives quietly in New York's Hudson Valley with his wife and Muse, Alexas, and their dog Dashiell Hammett. For more about Chris and Bodaciously, visit Orcutt.net.

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