by Jake Halpern
First published 2017
Wren lives on Edgeland, where families bring their dead for burial rites before sending them into the Drain, a massive whirlpool that devours everything. She watches as corpses loaded with treasure disappear into the churning waters thirty miles wide. When fur traders arrive from the polar regions with their deceased and valuable goods, Wren sees her opportunity to escape her orphaned life. She convinces her friend Alec to help steal from one of the funeral boats before it reaches the whirlpool. Their plan goes wrong when they get trapped aboard as the vessel spirals toward the Drain. Both teens plunge into the abyss, expecting death. Instead, they survive the fall and discover something impossible waiting beyond the whirlpool's depths. Their world expands in ways neither could have predicted.
Genres: science-fiction, dystopia, adventure, fantasy
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, emotional, suspenseful
Tropes: found-family, survival
Setting: Drain, Edgeland
272 pages · Hardcover · G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers