First published 2026
Sixteen-year-old Ellie Jacobs closes her eyes in her father's lab as cryogenic sleep takes hold. Her family plans to freeze themselves for ten years, waiting for the dictator's regime to collapse. When Ellie wakes three years early, she faces a world worse than the one she left. Government agents tell her that her parents and younger brother Scott died during the freezing process. Now she must undergo ReAdmittance to become an Initiated citizen. Her boyfriend Ryan, now nineteen and wearing a soldier's uniform, promises everything will work out if she trusts the system. But Ellie questions whether she can trust Ryan anymore. What she doesn't know is that Scott escaped the lab before the freeze began. He joined teenage resistance fighters hiding in the mountains. When Scott discovers the government thawed his sister early, he knows he must rescue her before the brainwashing destroys who she is. Scott leads other young rebels in a dangerous mission to reach Ellie. Brother and sister must find each other in this transformed America and fight to preserve their identities.
Genres: science-fiction, dystopia, adventure, thriller, young-adult, family-drama
Vibes: dark, emotionally-intense, fast-paced, gritty, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: brainwashing, found-family, resistance-against-tyranny, separated-siblings, trust-betrayal
Setting: America, Mountains
Period: 21st-century, near-future
352 pages · Hardcover · Simon Pulse
Content warnings: death, violence