She lost it all. Now she will venture into the world for the first time and learn the truth about why it was all taken away from her.
Sixteen-year-old Jolie Harperstone heard the deep rumble, saw a flash, and when she woke up, she was outside in her front yard and everything that she loved was gone. The house. Her parents. Everything was part of the scorched earth around her. Every day she goes to the same spot at sunset; every day she tries to leave her street but can’t. Then her neighbor, sixteen-year-old Christopher comes over. Confused by his sudden appearance, she hardly believes a word he says, until he says he can take her to the city to find the answers she seeks.
The world is vast, and Jolie can hardly understand any of it. For the things she is unsure of, the one she is most concerned over is that Christopher is lying to her. Nearly kidnapped, nearly killed, nearly thrown off a moving train, nearly eaten by monsters, she wants to put as much distance between her and Christopher as she can. If only he wasn’t the one who knew everything about her and is her best chance at finding the truth about her family.
