Where We Are
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
From New York Times bestselling author Alison McGhee comes a stunning and heartbreaking story of two teens who fight to reunite when one of them is caught in the web of a sinister cult.
Micah and Sesame are true best friends. They safeguard each other’s secrets and entwine their dreams. Micah wants to save his parents from the cult leader who calls himself “the Prophet.” Sesame recently lost the last of her own family—her grandmother—and, to avoid foster care, plans to keep a low profile until she turns eighteen. Together, they never doubt they can build the futures they want.
Until Micah disappears. The Prophet has taken Micah, his parents, and the rest of his followers underground. And trying to take on the Prophet in isolation, surrounded by his followers, proves to be a dangerous mistake that leaves Micah at the Prophet’s mercy and losing all hope.
Sesame, left alone, is wracked with fear over what could be happening to Micah. Never before have the two of them been so far apart—or needed each other more. But their faith in each other never wavers, and that might just be enough to save them both.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
When 17-year-old Micah's family pulls him out of school to decamp for their small Minneapolis religious cult's underground compound, he can't do much but leave a note and hope his girlfriend, Sesame, finds him. And Sesame tries, but Micah's cell phone has been taken, the police won't listen, and she doesn't want to rely on others since her grandmother died, Sesame has kept to herself, following her grandmother's guarded precepts to the extreme. As the search drags on, though, she has little choice but to ask for help. The high school juniors alternate as narrators, connected by their solitude and efforts to understand their families, including Micah's thoughts about why his parents follow their leader, and Sesame's gradual rethinking of her grandmother's approach to life. McGhee (What I Leave Behind) is especially good at portraying Micah's terror and determination, a success that renders Sesame's well-depicted but quieter chapters less effective. She has so little to go on that finding Micah seems impossible, and though McGhee includes a wealth of details about her life, her sections lack the urgency of Micah's life-and-death struggle. Still, watching two in difficult circumstances teens work through fear and toward bravery is gratifying. Ages 14 up.
