First published 2019
Seven-year-old Wen catches grasshoppers outside her family's isolated New Hampshire lake cabin when Leonard appears in the driveway. The giant man charms Wen with friendly conversation before delivering an ominous warning: "None of what's going to happen is your fault." Three more strangers arrive carrying mysterious, threatening objects. As Wen runs to alert her parents Eric and Andrew, Leonard shouts that her fathers must let them inside because they need the family's help to save the world. The four intruders present an impossible choice involving sacrifice and apocalypse. Trapped miles from neighbors on a rutted dirt road, the family faces escalating paranoia and unbearable tension. Their decision will determine not only their own survival but potentially the fate of all humanity.
Genres: suspense, mystery, horror, contemporary, thriller, apocalyptic
Vibes: dark, emotional, intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: impossible-choice, trapped, unreliable-narrator
Setting: New Hampshire, United States
Period: 21st-century
304 pages · Paperback · William Morrow Paperbacks
Content warnings: anxiety, death, violence