First published 2019
Tasha Davis has spent fourteen years trapped in Skillute, Washington, a small town that feels more like a prison than home. Her parents smother her with love but she craves something else: a real friend. When mysterious Briar Kenny arrives at Clark Middle School, Tasha sees everything she wants to become. Briar represents rebellion and freedom, while Tasha's stable family offers the security Briar has never known. The girls form a bond that deepens after they witness an act of violence together. Their shared secret creates an unbreakable connection, but it also awakens something terrible. Skillute harbors dark forces beneath its ordinary surface. The town carries scars from broken families, failed developments, and old grudges that never healed. Now something hungry and ancient stirs in the depths, drawn by the girls' secret. It seeks a way into the world above, and Tasha and Briar have given it an opening.
Genres: mystery, horror, contemporary, dark-fantasy
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, emotional, suspenseful
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Clark Middle School, Skillute, Washington
Period: 21st-century
208 pages · Paperback · Trepidatio Publishing
Content warnings: anxiety, depression, violence