Mariah MacCarthy

Mariah MacCarthy is a playwright and novelist whose work explores friendship, performance, identity, and the social pressure surrounding young people. Squad is a darkly comic novel for teen readers about Jenna Watson, a competitive cheerleader who loses the trust of her closest friend and teammates after a party. Macmillan records Squad as MacCarthy's debut novel and publishes it through Farrar, Straus and Giroux, while Kirkus emphasizes Jenna's mistakes, anxiety, and gradual willingness to take responsibility. The story moves beyond cheerleading when Jenna discovers live action role-playing and develops a relationship with James, experiences that widen her sense of who she can become. MacCarthy's theatrical background is visible in the novel's attention to group dynamics and the roles people perform for one another. Squad by Mariah MacCarthy delivers a candid account of exclusion, accountability, changing interests, and rebuilding a self after a once-defining community falls away.