Megan McCafferty

Megan McCafferty writes contemporary fiction across age categories, with a particular interest in adolescence, friendship, popular culture, and the awkward work of deciding who to become. The Mall is a teen novel set in 1991 at a New Jersey shopping center. Its protagonist, Cassie Worthy, expects a carefully planned summer before college, but a breakup and a lost job push her toward unexpected coworkers, friendships, and a search connected to the mall itself. Wednesday Books published the novel in 2020, presenting the period setting through music, fashion, food-court routines, and the social geography of retail life. McCafferty is also known for the Jessica Darling novels, which established her voice in adolescent fiction. The Mall returns to similar questions of identity and belonging while giving them a tightly bounded place and time. Cassie’s changing plans make the mall more than nostalgic scenery: it becomes the setting where embarrassment, independence, loyalty, and possibility collide.