While navigating a recent Autism diagnosis, teenage Cassie gets separated from her friends on a camping trip and meets a mysterious wood carver who brings her to his artists' compound where she feels an eerie sense of belonging

Ages 14 and Up

After a meltdown in her school cafeteria prompts an unwanted autism diagnosis, Cassie Davis moves back to her hometown in upstate New York, where her mom hopes the familiarity will allow Cassie to feel normal again. Cassie's never truly felt normal anywhere, but she does crave the ease she used to have with her old friends. Problem is that her friends aren't so eager to welcome her back into the fold. They extend an olive branch by inviting her on their backpacking trip to Hollow Ridge, in the upper reaches of the Adirondacks. But when a fight breaks out their first night, Cassie wakes to a barren campsite--her friends all gone. With severe weather approaching and nearing sensory overload, Cassie is saved by a boy named Kaleb, who whisks her away to a compound of artists and outcasts he calls the Roost. As Kaleb tends to her injuries, Cassie begins to feel--for the first time in her life--that she can truly be herself. But as the days pass, strange happenings around the Roost make Cassie question her instincts. Noises in the trees grow louder, begging the question: Are the dangers in the forest, on the trail, or in the Roost itself?

Grades 10-12