Into the Blue

The novel opens in October 2013 with AJ Graves backstage at the Hayes Theater before the dress rehearsal of a two-person play she shares with Noah Drew, the love of her life. Their show will run for twelve performances, after which Noah intends to leave her permanently. AJ resolves to use those performances to change his mind.

The story jumps to the summer of 2000 in Gladstone, Massachusetts, where seventeen-year-old AJ works at Reel World Video, writing fan fiction about Astronauticals, a 1964 improvised cult sci-fi series. A broken arm has destroyed her plans for a soccer intensive, a newspaper internship, and a scholarship to New York University (NYU), trapping her on a path to the University of Massachusetts, where her family has gone. AJ is the joker of a complicated household: her older brother Patrick is the family protector; her twin Emily has Down syndrome and a gift for bringing out the best in others; and their father Jack's drinking and terrifying rages keep the family in line.

When the store hires Noah Drew, a brooding twenty-one-year-old from Gladstone's most famous acting dynasty, AJ's world shifts. Noah is the nephew of Eudora Drew, who played Glimmette on Astronauticals, and the great-nephew of the show's creator, comedy legend Ezell Farr. Their first interactions are prickly, but they bond over Astronauticals, and Noah teaches AJ the structural principles of improvised comedy.

At Drew House, the family estate, Eudora agrees to train AJ and Noah after hearing them read the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet. AJ flees but returns after Noah reveals his mother is seriously ill and that he left West Point to care for her. Daily lessons encompass Method acting, Shakespeare, and "kinetic synthesis," paired dancing meant to attune their physical awareness. Through weeks of work, they discover what Ezell called the Black Room, a state of shared consciousness where two improvisers move through a scene as one.

Noah's mother worsens, and after devastating test results he speeds to the care facility. Eudora conquers her stage fright to deliver a triumphant convention panel. Backstage, AJ and Noah share their first kiss. Then Noah vanishes. He quits his job, stops returning calls, and disappears. When AJ confronts Eudora, the old woman tells AJ she is "perfectly fine, average" (87) and that training her was only ever about reaching Noah. Devastated, AJ seals away her performing self and channels her pain into earning acceptance to NYU on her own.

Seven years later, AJ works in reality television and writes comedy sketches at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre with her roommate Dave Marans and her friend Toni O'Brian. When the Writers Guild strikes in 2007, her boss Ian Farnum casts them in an unscripted Astronauticals prequel for Fox. Noah, now a rising HBO star, has specifically requested AJ. On set, the producers maneuver AJ toward the lead role of Alara, a powerful fugitive hidden among the crew. Her scenes with Noah crackle with chemistry. Toni, who wanted the part, turns against AJ. At the wrap party, producer Em Tyner lures AJ to his office and places his hand on her thigh; Noah bursts in and extracts her.

Alone afterward, Noah reveals why he left Gladstone. His mother had Huntington's disease, a progressive, incurable, hereditary neurodegenerative disorder, and he tested positive for the gene. He learned his diagnosis the day of the convention, kissed AJ impulsively, and fled. He had a vasectomy at twenty-two to prevent passing on the disease. He tells AJ he loves her but insists she deserves a normal life, describing his plan for physician-assisted suicide before symptoms progress. Hours later, AJ goes to his room, and they sleep together for the first time. In the morning, she slips out without a word.

Back in New York, Into the Blue bombs in the ratings but spawns a devoted cult following called the Blue Coats. A clip of AJ breaking character goes viral as the "No" GIF, humiliating her publicly. She and Dave create a parody that catches the attention of Saturday Night Live (SNL), where AJ is hired as a writer. She begins dating Brian McKenzie, a kind ESPN reporter, while her drinking quietly escalates. When Noah hosts SNL, he breaks from the script to call AJ onstage, and they kiss before a live audience. At the after-party, AJ, drunk and furious, tells Noah he deserves to be sick. Their connection severs completely.

Months later, Patrick is critically injured in a car accident, his medical bills exceeding $700,000. Brian proposes, and AJ accepts. She encounters Noah at Simmons, the facility where Patrick is recovering. Later, at a diner, Noah encourages AJ to join the fan convention circuit to raise money for Patrick. Over the summer, they reunite before enthusiastic Blue Coat audiences. At Blue Con, Eudora tells AJ, "You get one" (303), urging her to act. AJ confesses her feelings, but Noah claims he loves actress Allison Seabring and says the cons were motivated by guilt. He secretly donates his convention fee. With earnings from her younger brother Mike's gaming conventions added to hers, AJ presents $400,000 to Patrick.

AJ watches Noah win the Academy Award for Byron. That night she returns Brian's ring, quits drinking, and begins therapy. When Eudora dies the following spring, Noah invites AJ to Drew House. The will bequeaths Ezell's intellectual estate, including his unfinished play Fire & Water, jointly to them. Noah reveals Allison was never his girlfriend; the relationship was staged for publicity. His Oscar speech was addressed to AJ. They fall into each other's arms.

They spend the summer at Drew House with Noah's dog Bud. AJ reads Eudora's private papers and discovers the old woman recognized their talent from the start, dismissing AJ cruelly in 2000 only to set her free after Noah's diagnosis shattered her plans. When Noah experiences an involuntary hand tremor, he breaks down, convinced the disease is beginning, and tells AJ she must leave. AJ proposes they stage Fire & Water: twelve performances, after which they will part.

The play becomes the arena for their real battle. Its scripted first act tells of two scientist-lovers who suspend their home from time because one is terminally ill. The improvised second act changes each night. AJ uses her scenes to challenge Noah's plan to die alone, confronting him with caregiving, fatherhood, and the devastation suicide leaves behind. Noah retaliates by making AJ portray his dying mother and by performing a harrowing physical depiction of advanced Huntington's symptoms that leaves AJ devastated.

In the final show, Noah initiates an alien love story paralleling their real history, then kisses AJ goodbye and walks offstage. AJ calls his real name and promises to support whatever he decides about his end of life. He says "No" and tears himself away. Alone on the dark stage, AJ spirals toward suicidal thoughts before a phone call from Emily, chattering about Astronauticals, anchors her. As AJ reaches the wing, Noah's dog Bud sprints toward her, followed by Noah himself. He waited in the alley, unable to leave. He tells her no plan could lessen the pain of losing her. He offers his hand. AJ places hers in his.

An epilogue set in the summer of 2015 shows AJ and Noah married and running a production company, filming an Into the Blue sequel that AJ wrote. Noah's tremors are consistent but managed day by day. They are embedded in the Graves family, devoted to Emily, and surrounded by love. Noah calls "Action," and they race, hands clasped, into the wide-open future.