Screenplay Turned Book: BRHS Teacher Pens 1st Coming Of Age Novel

BRIDGEWATER, NJ — While film remains a passion for Bridgewater-Raritan High School teacher Rob Thorp, he recently dabbled in the world of book writing.

In 2021, Thorp wrote a screenplay "Ghostly George" and was shopping it around at some film festivals when he kept getting similar feedback.

"They thought they could see it as like a TV show or a book," said Thorp. "Something about it was like a chapter in their head - they kept saying that."

In the winter of 2022, Thorp was in between projects and decided to try something new.

"Let me see what this would feel like, to just write it out," said Thorp. "And it just kind of clicked and felt really good, because screenwriting is super restrictive such as what we can't do. And novel writing is the opposite, I just kind of knew where I was going, because I knew the story from the script."

In the fall of 2024, Thorp published "Ghostly George," a coming-of-age book set in the summer of 1985 in New Jersey.

"It's based really loosely on my family's move from the Bronx, New York, to the suburbs of New Jersey. My brother and sister were born in the Bronx, and my parents - kind of like a lot of families - were looking to find better schools, better options, and moved to the suburbs," said Thorp.

"Ghostly Geroge" is centered around a main character called George Boyce whose family moves to New Jersey. It's the last week before she enters a new high school and her junior year when the adventure unfolds.

"Again it is kind of based on my sister, the tiniest bit," said Thorp. "It's all fictional, but I just kind of populated it with these, like memories, of just kind of coming of age happening during the last week of summer, right before school starts."

In the book, George is drawn into a fragile swell of dangerous attractions – the pack of feral, heavy metal boys who spend their days lighting fires, and perfecting their disaffection – and the pretty, but cold, popular girls who offer an endpoint for her desire to be seen, and to be beautiful.

"She's sort of figuring it all out in that one week before school starts," said Thorp.

Thorp has already received positive feedback prompting him to begin working on a new book.

"I definitely found something that I really love," said Thorp. "Filming was so rigorous, and just to get a movie off the ground, it takes years and money and all these things. So writing, I found it is something you could travel with. You can be anywhere, and as long as you know what you want to say, you can do it."

For more information or to buy the book visit amazon.com/Ghostly-George-Rob-Thorp. There is also an audio version of the book available through Audible at audible.com/pd/Ghostly-George-Audiobook.

Thorp has been teaching English and Film Studies at Bridgewater-Raritan High School for 12 years. He has also produced many films.

His first feature film, The Dirty Thirty, which he directed and co-wrote, premiered in Asbury Park, NJ in the summer of 2016. His second feature, Shark River, which Rob wrote and directed, is currently available on Amazon. For more information on his production company visit Rucksack Films.

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