First published 2025
August's brother vanishes before his sophomore year of college. Everyone else chalks it up to burnout, but August knows better. Their mother disappeared not long ago, and her brother left behind a single note: stay safe, protect the family. Then something enormous, furred, and clawed attacks August in the dark, and the mystery stops feeling academic. The only person who can explain the creature is Virgil Hawthorne, a quiet, bookish student with a problem of his own. He is one of those creatures, and without a human partner to help anchor him, he will lose himself entirely. The secret society he was raised in would be happy to destroy him if that happens. Virgil offers August a deal. She joins his society and partners with him. He helps her find her brother. To hold up her end, August has to survive a brutal competition for a handful of candidate spots, all while learning that monsters are not metaphors. They are real, they follow rules, and August has to understand those rules before she runs out of time to save her brother.
Genres: adventure, mystery, fantasy, young-adult, paranormal, dark-fantasy
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, fast-paced, intense, mysterious, suspenseful
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, forced-proximity, found-family, protective-partnership
592 pages · Hardcover · Margaret K. McElderry Books
Content warnings: death, violence