How You Come Back

Coming out February 2026

“I've been waiting for Chelsea Laine Wells to write a novel for a long time, and How You Come Back was well worth the wait. A coming of age tale that is raw and vivid and searching? I'm there. A novel about friendship and daughterhood and figuring out how to parent your children? Give it to me. A story about how the world teaches a girl to be afraid, but she can also learn how to feel safe? Good God, this book was made for me. I loved Sunny and Gracie and Nathan and Decker, and I'll be handing this book to friends so they can fall in love, too.” 

Lindsay Hunter, author of Hot Springs Drive

“How You Come Back is a live wire of a novel, beautiful and sparking, keeping you emotionally on your toes. I fell in love with the characters, wounds and scabs and all, and would follow them to the end of the earth. Chelsea Laine Wells is, truly, a one-in-a-million talent.”

Ilana Masad, author of Beings

“In this masterful debut novel, Chelsea Lane Wells deftly unearths the fraught internal landscape of adolescence in glorious and compassionate detail…. By the end of the first chapter, I’d fallen in love. By the last chapter, I would fight and die for these characters.”

Christine Rice, author of Swarm Theory

“In her long-awaited debut novel, Chelsea Laine Wells methodically pours Pop Rocks into the open wounds inflicted by familial trauma, sexual turmoil and crushing addiction, allowing brave readers to experience its fizzy combustion as it coalesces into a deep, poetic reservoir of hurt, longing, and ultimately, survival. How You Come Back serves as a tattered and torn Snuggie in a chilly, confusing world.”

Brian Alan Ellis, author of Hobbies You Enjoy