First published 2024
Miles Abernathy chooses the same night to come out as trans to his parents and sneak off to a party with damning evidence. The sixteen-year-old socialist from West Virginia carries photos proving Sheriff Davies caused the "accident" that injured his father and killed others while crushing their movement to remove the sheriff from power. This blood feud stretches back a century to when Miles's great-great-grandfather Saint Abernathy led a miners' rebellion that ended with his public execution by law enforcement. The sheriff's son and his friends track Miles through the woods and beat him nearly to death. In the hospital, a soot-covered ghost hovers over Miles while Sheriff Davies threatens him into silence. When Miles accidentally kills one of his attackers, he discovers other Twist Creek residents who want freedom from the sheriff's control. They will risk everything to break the cycle of cruelty that has trapped their families for generations. Miles must decide if he will join their fight.
Genres: american-fiction, historical-fiction, coming-of-age, crime, activism, family-drama
Vibes: dark, emotional, fast-paced, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Twist Creek, West Virginia
Period: 19th-century, 20th-century
370 pages · Hardcover · Peachtree Teen
Content warnings: abuse, physical-abuse, violence