Until the Beat Stops. This item is unavailable.Until the Beat Stops

“Stunning, heart-shaking, and beautifully human… I couldn’t put it down.”

“A riveting, hope-filled debut about legacy, grief, and the quiet moments that change everything.”

“Inspiring, empowering, and beautifully told.”
— Vanguard Magazine

“Extraordinary and awe-inspiring… a reminder of the power of human connection.”
— Huffington Post

“Every now and then a book stays with you forever. Until the Beat Stops is one of them.”
— Word Menagerie

From breakout author Stella Mowen comes a story that asks how we preserve the memories that shape us—and how we keep going when life stops us in our tracks.

In her acclaimed debut Until the Beat Stops, Mowen weaves a soulful, multi-perspective narrative about a visionary Seattle startup, The First Hill—created to honor the stories of those who may not live long enough to tell them. What begins as a mission to preserve the memories of terminally ill cancer patients unexpectedly becomes a sweeping digital archive of every moment worth saving: the past that formed us, the present that defines us, and the future we dare to imagine.

Told in an intimate documentary style, the novel travels back through the defining moments of each Founder—moments of love, loss, courage, and breathtaking clarity that reveal why they built a legacy meant to outlive them all.

A profoundly moving novel about the power of memory, the urgency of telling our stories, and the truth that even in our darkest chapters, hope still beats.

15% of proceeds benefit the American Cancer Society’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer.

Author and founder of the nonprofit The First Hill. Originally from the suburbs of Chicago, she now resides in the Emerald City, Seattle, Washington, where she spends her days working in the film and TV industry and her nights and weekends engaged in her favorite pastimes-writing at local coffee shops, listening to records, and drinking PNW brews while relishing in each day with old and new friends, who help her understand the past and enjoy every new beginning.