And Don't Look Back
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
After her mother’s death, a teen pieces together the truth of her family’s past and what her mom was hiding from in this “hauntingly atmospheric and utterly engrossing” (Jas Hammonds, award-winning author of We Deserve Monuments) thriller that’s perfect for fans of Courtney Summers and Tiffany D. Jackson.
Harlow Ford has spent her entire life running, caught in her mother’s wake as they flit from town to town, hiding from a presence that Harlow isn’t even sure is real. In each new place, Harlow takes on a new name and personality, and each time they run, she leaves another piece of herself behind.
When Harlow and her mom set off on yet another 3 a.m. escape, they are involved in a car accident that leaves Harlow’s mother fatally wounded. Before she dies, she tells Harlow two things: where to find the key to a safety deposit box and to never stop running. In the box, Harlow finds thirty grand in cash, life insurance documents, and several fake IDs for both herself and her mom—an on-the-run essentials kit. But Harlow also finds a photograph of her mom as a teenager with two other girls, the deed to a house in a town she’s never heard of, and a handful of newspaper clippings discussing the disappearance of a woman named Eve Kennedy, Harlow’s grandmother…relics of a part of Harlow’s life she never knew existed.
With these tantalizing clues about her mother’s secrets and the power to choose her own future for the first time, Harlow realizes she has two choices: keep fleeing her mom’s ghosts or face down the nebulous threat that’s been hanging over her for her entire life.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
An orphaned teen unearths terrifying truths about her family's past in this suspenseful read by Barrow (Bad Things Happen Here). For her entire life, 17-year-old Harlow Ford and her mother have been running from something that's a secret to Harlow. But before her mother's death following a car accident, she tells Harlow where to find a safe-deposit box, in which Harlow finds a deed for a house in Crescent Ridge, Wash.; $15,000; several fake IDs; and photographs of family she never knew existed. She also unearths a puzzling news article about the maternal grandmother Harlow has never met, who mysteriously disappeared before her mother went on the run. Intrigued by her discoveries, Harlow breaks her promise to keep running and instead heads to Crescent Ridge, hoping to uncover more about her mother's past. But the house is not quite what it seems, and as Harlow investigates, she finds more questions than answers. Black lesbian Harlow's cautious steps toward self-discovery and her own independent future are empathetically portrayed. Brief interstitials gradually reveal more of Harlow's mother's past, and tense third-person narration culminates in an edgy, uneasy atmosphere that propels this climactic thriller toward a breakneck resolution. Ages 14–up.
