by Kim Liggett
First published 2019
Tierney James turns sixteen in Garner County, where girls must spend their grace year banished to the wilderness. The community believes teenage girls emit dangerous magic that can seduce men and drive women to madness. Only by releasing this power into the wild can they return home purified and ready for marriage. Tierney dreams of escaping this cruel system that turns women against each other, but survival becomes her immediate concern. The exiled girls face starvation and exposure in the brutal elements. Poachers lurk in the woods, hunting them to sell their body parts on the black market. Yet the deadliest danger comes from within their own group. Desperation transforms friends into enemies as the girls realize not everyone will make it home alive. Tierney must navigate the twisted dynamics between the banished girls while questioning everything her society has taught her about female power and worth.
Genres: fiction, dystopia, fantasy, young-adult
Vibes: dark, emotional, suspenseful
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, found-family
Setting: Garner County
Period: 21st-century
416 pages · Hardcover · Wednesday Books
Content warnings: abuse, violence