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An emotionally complex portrayal of secrets, loss, and grief from Dante Medema, Indies Introduce author of the Indie Next Pick title The Truth Project.

Bailey and Vanessa shared everything: laughter, secrets, and packets of Pop Rocks to ward off bad days. But that all changed the night Vanessa left Bailey’s, headed for home, and ended up swerving off a cliff nowhere near her house. Now Bailey, who thought she knew Vanessa better than anyone in the world, is left with a million unanswered questions, and the only person with answers is gone.

To help grieve her loss, Bailey creates a chat bot of Vanessa using years’ worth of their shared text messages and emails. The more data she uploads to the bot, the more it feels like she’s really talking to her best friend. That is, until the bot starts dropping hints that there was more going on with Vanessa than Bailey realized—a secret so big, it may have contributed to Vanessa’s death.

This compelling puzzle of a story, filled with engrossing twists and turns, is written in alternating prose and text message formats. Teens will gobble up this fast-paced page-turner.

What happens when the digital ghost of your best friend starts telling you secrets she never would have in life?
A Grief Chat Bot: To process her grief, Bailey uploads years of texts and emails, creating a digital version of Vanessa. But this ghost in the machine knows more than she’s letting on.Told in Texts and Prose: Experience the story through a unique blend of heartfelt prose and urgent text messages, piecing together clues just as Bailey does.A Friendship Built on Secrets: Bailey thought she knew everything about Vanessa. The deeper she digs, the more she realizes their entire friendship might have been a lie.An Alaska Setting: In the icy, isolated small town of Tundra Cove, secrets are easy to keep—and deadly to uncover.