by Rebecca Mix
First published 2023
Canary Mossheart has watched the mold destroy everything she loves. It killed her papa years ago. Now it threatens her mama, despite all the stories of her grandmother's heroic past as a chosen one who could cure anything. Twelve-year-old Ary refuses to lose another parent. She sneaks away to find the magical underground lake from Gran's old adventures, carrying nothing but a bucket and desperate hope for healing waters. Instead of salvation, Ary finds a dried lakebed and a devastating truth. Her entire world exists inside a massive terrarium, a prison they should have escaped centuries earlier. Her legendary grandmother knew this secret all along and chose silence, condemning Ary's generation to slow death in a rotting cage. With only one week before the exit seals forever, Ary must solve the mystery her grandmother buried. Her unlikely allies include a doomsday-obsessed frenemy, a frightened pill bug, and one very irritable newt. Together they race against time to find their way out before the mold claims everything and everyone Ary has left.
Genres: science-fiction, adventure, fantasy, young-adult
Vibes: emotional, fast-paced, thought-provoking
Tropes: chosen-one, found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Africa, Terrarium
Period: Future
432 pages · Hardcover · HarperCollins
Content warnings: death, mental-illness