Just Another Dead Boy

“You think all this ‘live every day like it’s your last’ crap is about defying death, like you’re some kind of rebel. Like that’s brave.” He shakes his head. “That’s not brave. You need to stop living like today is your last and start living like it isn’t.“

DON’T FALL IN LOVE.

That’s the only rule.

In this world, everyone knows their death date. If you’re rich, you can check in to a resort to have the greatest final few weeks of your life, in five-star luxury.

Regan works at one of these resorts as a “Juliet”. Her next client is Jude, who has a week to live. Regan’s job is simple: make Jude feel as though he has found true love before he dies.

But when a fake romance starts to become something else, can they take on Fate together – before Jude’s death date catches up with them?

Coming June 2026!

Available from all major book chains. Please support your local independent bookstores if possible!

Bookshop.org   Waterstones     Amazon

“A gorgeous examination of dying young and the legacy we leave behind, alongside the desperate desire to make something of your life and falling in love against all the odds, this is a heartbreaking and uplifting story” – Margaret McDonald

“Shift over, Shakespeare, there’s a new tear-jerker in town! Kelly McCaughrain’s new YA speculative romance is an exciting bittersweet adventure, raising questions about privilege, mortality and sacrifice. Beautifully-crafted, perfectly-pitched and paced. I know it’ll go straight to young adult hearts” – Tia Fisher

“Just another Dead Boy is another outstanding book by one of our most interesting and original Irish YA authors. One of my must reads of the year already” – Sarah Webb

“It’s a wonderful book. It’s very much a Kelly McCaughrain book in that there are no easy answers, and the protagonists feel layered and lived in, she has such a gift for murky emotional truths, but the pacing is incredible, it’s a masterful combination of gripping and moving in turn, and the exploration of different types of privilege, of capitalism and creative practice and of the value and cost of emotional labour leaves the reader with so much to think about when the last page is read. Kelly’s respect for her reader and interest in exploring ethical dilemmas from a variety of angles is very much in evidence” – Deirdre Sullivan

“Every book Kelly writes is something utterly fresh and authentic. What a premise!”  – Maire Zepf

“How delicious to enter into this world of extreme wealth and celebrity with Regan, but also to peel back its façade and experience its dark underbelly of questionable ethics and criminal greed, searching for humanity on its crumbling fringes. The novel’s existential questions about life and death and youth were handled beautifully as we get caught up in the tragedy of these modern star crossed lovers. Kelly McCaughrain’s writing just gets better and better. The pages almost turned themselves” – Shirley Anne McMillan

“Guaranteed, you’ll turn pages late into the night and ask yourself would I live differently if I knew when I’d die?“ – Sue Divin

“Beautifully written, Just Another Dead Boy will rip your heart from your chest. A viciously sharp novel brimming with energy that teens will be clamouring for, I absolutely loved it” – Lucas Maxwell

“One of the best YA books I’ve read in a very long time” – Jenny Ireland

“Just Another Dead Boy hit me right in the heart. With Romeo and Juliet at is centre, the book looks not just at the tragedy of someone dying young, but how capitalism and class difference play out when an end of life can be commodified. Food for the head and the heart. With gut punches that had me crying, and a world that I felt I could step into, I can’t recommend this book enough” – Stephen Daly

“The characters fizz with that heady cocktail of hormones, life force and jaded ennui so typical of the hiatus between the end of high school and whatever happens next” – Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick

“Kelly McCaughrain’s new romance is compelling, thought-provoking and heartbreaking. I absolutely loved it” – Cathy Faulkner

WHY I WROTE THE BOOK

To me, negotiating adolescence always felt like a balancing act between reckless hedonism and profound issues, so wild child Regan and uptight, philosophical Jude were a clash made in heaven. My favourite books are fun reads with substance at their core, and this mashup of love and death, Fate and fake dating, Romeo and Juliet meets Dirty Dancing, made Just Another Dead Boy the most fun I’ve ever had at my desk.

Like Jude, I enjoy a good existential question! At the heart of this romance are the big issues I wanted to play with. I’m fascinated and appalled by the way humans will attempt to capitalise on anything, and when I heard the phrase ‘suicide tourism’ (meaning travelling for assisted dying) my brain jumped straight to flashy tourist resorts catering for your last days on earth, offering every bucket list luxury imaginable. But I wondered, if you could put anything on your bucket list, would you really choose lavish consumerism and thrill-seeking, or would you want to experience true love before you die?

I created a tourist resort where those dying young can do just that via The Romeo and Juliet Service. But rather than the guests, I was more interested in the people who would work there, and what it would do to them to live in a world of opulent glamour they can’t afford, to encounter death on a daily basis, and to know that everything, including their hearts, is a marketable commodity.

What makes life meaningful? What does a life well lived look like? And can star-crossed teens, Regan and Jude, figure that out before the clock runs out for one of them?