Description

Imagine that all satellite-based media in the United States suddenly stops functioning. In an instant, you can’t place or receive a phone call, access the Internet, watch TV, even operate a GPS. More alarming still, all your media devices begin displaying brief, cryptic messages…from something called “The Real Deal.” Each message contains a “fact,” one shocking statistic regarding the actual condition of the world today. The messages come faster and faster. Incredibly, they seem not to repeat. The cacophony reaches a crescendo. It threatens to overwhelm you. And then it’s over, as suddenly as it began. What then?

The Real Deal opens with this attack, seen through the eyes of 17-year-old Mouse Mussendon, a misfit senior at a posh private school in Los Angeles. Funny, articulate, sensitive and self-critical, Mouse couldn’t be more unlike her sunny, privileged classmates. But now, with graduation only weeks away, Mouse finds herself frightened of the future, frozen by the choices that adult life demands.

Mouse is inexplicably “hooked” by The Real Deal messages, almost to the point of obsession. While the country convulses with conspiracy theories and the Feds launch a worldwide manhunt, Mouse embarks on her own adventure. Her mission? To uncover the truth behind the mysterious Real Deal messages.

The Real Deal follows multiple story lines as Mouse and her classmates, parents, teachers, and their spouses respond (or choose not to respond) to The Real Deal. The Real Deal is part mystery, part contemporary satire, part techno-thriller, and part call to action. Ultimately and finally, it is the chronicle of one brave girl’s journey towards self-discovery – toward The Real Deal.