First published 2014
Emily Shepard builds shelter from ice and garbage bags in the frozen wasteland of Vermont. Six months ago, a nuclear plant melted down in the Northeast Kingdom. Both her parents died in the disaster. Her father ran the facility and may have caused the catastrophe while drunk. Emily believes she is the daughter of America's most despised man. She flees to Burlington rather than follow social workers and displaced classmates. Emily steals to survive and sleeps in a drug dealer's apartment. She creates a new identity inspired by poet Emily Dickinson. When she meets Cameron, a homeless boy, Emily protects him with unexpected intensity. Her past refuses to stay buried. Grief follows her everywhere. She cannot hide indefinitely. Emily devises the only escape plan she can imagine. The story explores how a teenager rebuilds her world after losing everything to forces beyond her control.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, grief, identity
Setting: Burlington, Northeast Kingdom, Vermont
Period: 21st-century
288 pages · Hardcover · Doubleday
Content warnings: death, mental-illness