The award-winning story of a missing girl in a lawless city.
'Tanya Leeโs debut novel is a page-turner, with settings so richly detailed that you can practically smell the disinfectant in Samโs childhood dorm and the garbage lining the Barrowโs muddy lanes. Itโs a dystopian epic made for film.' - 2019 IndieReader Discovery Award Winner (best YA fiction)
Hailed by Kirkus as one of the Great Indie Books Worth Discovering
Shortlisted for the Whistler Independent Book Awards (fiction category)
Wishing Shelf Book Awards bronze medalist (teen category)
Readers' Favorite Book Awards silver medalist (best young adult sci-fi)
B.R.A.G Medallion Honoree
Global warming has divided the continent. Samarra has fled from the barren, authoritarian South to the Barrow, a northern city where the only things growing faster than the cityโs piles of garbage are extremist cults and violent gangs. Her sole objective is survival: to stay hidden and stay safe.
With jobs in short supply, Samarra counts herself lucky to find work with the Vauns, one of the Barrowโs most powerful and dangerous families. As she learns to navigate the beauty, the horror, and the magic of the lawless city, she finds herself living in the shadow of a missing womanโthe mysterious Raina, who worked for the Vauns before her. When the trail, long thought cold, heats up, Samarra must decide whether her newly gained chance at freedom is worth sacrificing for a ghost.
'Atmospheric . . . realistic . . . slow-burning' -Kirkus Reviews
'A superb read that holds much promise for the future of science fiction' - Readers' Favorite Book Awards
'Marvelous world-building' - Judge 14, 27th Annual Writerโs Digest Self-Published Book Awards
'A gripping dystopian adventure' - Wishing Shelf Book Awards
'Rich, evocative and compelling, with subtle humor and dynamic strong female characters to root for. For fans of The Hunger Games and Divergent, this richly layered page-turner hits all the right notes and then some' - Kristen Conrad, # 1 bestselling author of This is Devin Jones
Amazon reviewers have called it:
'Captivating'
'A dystopian like no other'
'A great doomsday novel'
'An engaging and well-written page turner'
'Fantastic apocalyptic fiction'
PLEASE NOTE: This work contains mature themes