The Last of Us meets The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes in this stand-alone dystopian romance about survival, sacrifice, and love that risks everything.
By encouraging massive accumulations of debt from its underclass, a single corporation, Caerus, controls all aspects of society.
Inesa lives with her brother in a half-sunken town where they scrape by running a taxidermy shop. Unbeknownst to Inesa, their cruel and indolent mother has accrued an enormous debt--enough to qualify one of her children for Caerus's livestreamed assassination spectacle: the Lamb's Gauntlet.
Melinoƫ is a Caerus assassin, trained to track and kill the sacrificial Lambs. The product of neural reconditioning and physiological alteration, she is a living weapon, known for her cold brutality and deadly beauty. She has never failed to assassinate one of her marks.
When Inesa learns that her mother has offered her as a sacrifice, at first she despairs--the Gauntlet is always a bloodbath for the impoverished debtors. But she's had years of practice surviving in the apocalyptic wastes, and with the help of her hunter brother she might stand a chance of staying alive.
For Melinoƫ, this is a game she can't afford to lose. Despite her reputation for mercilessness, she is haunted by painful flashbacks. After her last Gauntlet, where she broke down on livestream, she desperately needs redemption.
As Mel pursues Inesa across the wasteland, both girls begin to question everything: Inesa wonders if there's more to life than survival, while Mel wonders if she's capable of more than killing.
And both wonder if, against all odds, they might be falling in love.
Khalani is a Prisoner
Takeshi is a Guard
Both are slaves to the Underground
Khalani Kanes has never stood on the surface of the earth. In the underground city of Apollo,
faith and dreams are as absent as the sun. She longed to visit Genesis, the infamous Domed
City and the final place where humanity lives aboveground. But when Khalani is given a life
sentence and thrown into prison for a theft she didn't commit, those wishes shatter into oblivion.
In Braderhelm Prison, murderers are neighbors, ruthless and cold-blooded guards live to
punish, and every second is a battle to survive. She thought the danger lay in befriending
criminals and avoiding Takeshi Steele, the nefarious Captain who runs her cell block. But darker
traps and secrets await her within the shadows of imprisonment. Khalani's blood will coat the
walls in flaming silk before her enemies let her escape to the surface, a feat no one has
successfully achieved. If the reclusive and callous Takeshi Steele won't kill Khalani, then the
merciless prisoners and her fractured mind will.
Enter Braderhelm Prison, where only the Wicked remain.
Two boys fall in love in a deadly world, but it's the secrets they keep that might kill them.
Seventeen-year-old Zach was visiting his uncle in a small Montana town when a mysterious illness ripped through the world. Most died, but those who survived the Infection became mindless killers, spreading the disease with a single scratch. Now, a year later, civilization lies in ruins, and Zach is the town's sole survivor. Desperately lonely, he longs to return to his family in Seattle, but his fears hold him captive.
Eighteen-year-old Aiden is on a critical mission for the covert Scientific Collective, delivering vials whose contents could cure the Infection. Tortured by his boyfriend's death, he welcomes the risks of the perilous journey. When a militia attacks Aiden, he flees to Zach's town.
The boys escape together and soon form a bond as they comfort each other in this desolate and broken world. The farther they travel, the more their affection grows, as do the forces pulling them apart. But their greatest threats are the secrets they keep. Zach hides details of his uncle's death, and Aiden conceals the vials' sinister origins. In order to survive, they'll have to confront the truths that could tear their love apart.
The first in New York Times bestselling author Michael Grant's breathtaking dystopian sci-fi saga, Gone is a page-turning thriller that invokes the classic The Lord of the Flies along with the horror of Stephen King.
In the blink of an eye, everyone disappears. Gone. Except for the young. There are teens, but not one single adult. Just as suddenly, there are no phones, no internet, no television. No way to get help. And no way to figure out what's happened.
Hunger threatens. Bullies rule. A sinister creature lurks. Animals are mutating. And the teens themselves are changing, developing new talents--unimaginable, dangerous, deadly powers--that grow stronger by the day.
It's a terrifying new world. Sides are being chosen, a fight is shaping up. Townies against rich kids. Bullies against the weak. Powerful against powerless. And time is running out: on your birthday, you disappear just like everyone else. . . .
A potent mix of action and thoughtfulness--centered around good and evil, courage and cowardice--renders this a tour de force that will leave readers dazed, disturbed, and utterly breathless. --ALA Booklist (starred review)
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NO ONE EVER CARED MUCH ABOUT THIS TERRITORY
Gabriel just wants to do his job and be left alone. The alien oppressors of his childhood may be gone, but their legacy of unearthly technology, nightmarish monsters, and ordinary people developing Shattered powers still lingers. With the violent past threatening to become a bloody present, Gabriel joins forces with the other members of his base-men and women of the Earth Defense Force who successfully pushed the xenos back into space eight years ago.
Seven veterans. One rookie. None of them ever had the families they dreamed of, but battle forges a bond stronger than blood. When the unthinkable happens, Gabriel must trust his newfound family, find his own courage, and embrace the truth he's always known-that even the worst places and most broken people deserve someone who's willing to fight for them.
Two girls on opposite sides of a war discover they're fighting for a common purpose--and falling for each other--in Zoe Hana Mikuta's high-octane debut Gearbreakers, perfect for fans of Pacific Rim, Pierce Brown's Red Rising Saga, and Marie Lu's Legend series.
We went past praying to deities and started to build them instead... The shadow of Godolia's tyrannical rule is spreading, aided by their giant mechanized weapons known as Windups. War and oppression are everyday constants for the people of the Badlands, who live under the thumb of their cruel Godolia overlords. Eris Shindanai is a Gearbreaker, a brash young rebel who specializes in taking down Windups from the inside. When one of her missions goes awry and she finds herself in a Godolia prison, Eris meets Sona Steelcrest, a cybernetically enhanced Windup pilot. At first Eris sees Sona as her mortal enemy, but Sona has a secret: She has intentionally infiltrated the Windup program to destroy Godolia from within. As the clock ticks down to their deadliest mission yet, a direct attack to end Godolia's reign once and for all, Eris and Sona grow closer--as comrades, friends, and perhaps something more... Praise for Gearbreakers:A breathtaking work of imagination, Hester Shaw is a heroine for the ages. The moment we finished reading this book we knew we wanted to make it into a movie. -- Producer Peter Jackson
* Reeve's [Mortal Engines] remains a landmark of visionary imagination. -- School Library Journal, starred review
Now a major motion picture produced by Peter Jackson!
London is hunting again. Emerging from its hiding place in the hills, the great Traction City is chasing a terrified little town across the wastelands. Soon London will feed.
In the attack, Tom Natsworthy is flung from the speeding city with a murderous scar-faced girl. They must run for their lives through the wreckage -- and face a terrifying new weapon that threatens the future of the world.
Beloved storyteller Philip Reeve creates a brilliant new world in the Mortal Engines series, called phenomenal... violent and romantic, action-packed and contemplative, funny and frightening by the Sunday Times.
Godslayers--Zoe Hana Mikuta's high-octane sequel to Gearbreakers--is perfect for fans of Pacific Rim, Pierce Brown's Red Rising Saga, and Marie Lu's Legend series.
The only way to kill a god is from the inside... The Gearbreakers struck a devastating blow against Godolia on Heavensday, but the cost of victory has been steep. Months later, the few rebels who've managed to escape the tyrannical empire's bloody retribution have fled to the mountains, hunted by the last Zenith--Godolia's only surviving leader. Eris has been held prisoner since the attack on the capital city, which almost killed her. And she begins to wish it had when she discovers Sona--the girl she loves, the girl she would tear down cities for--also survived, only to be captured and corrupted by the Zenith. The cybernetic brainwashing that Sona has forcibly undergone now has her believing herself a loyal soldier for Godolia, and Eris' mortal enemy. With the rebellion shattered and Godolia moving forward with an insidious plan to begin inducting Badlands children into a new Windup Pilot program, the odds have never been more stacked against the Gearbreakers. Their last hope for victory will depend on whether Eris and Sona can somehow find their way back to each other from opposite sides of a war... Praise for Gearbreakers: A Junior Library Guild SelectionNOW A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
From #1 New York Times-bestselling author Marissa Meyer, comes a high-stakes world of adventure, passion, danger, and betrayal. Secret Identities.The second book in Michael Grant's New York Times bestselling Gone series, Hunger is a thrilling, action-packed story that is impossible to put down.
It's been three months since all the adults disappeared. Gone. Food ran out weeks ago and starvation is imminent. Meanwhile, the normal teens have grown resentful of the kids with powers. And when an unthinkable tragedy occurs, chaos descends upon the town. There is no longer right and wrong. Each kid is out for himself and even the good ones turn murderous. But a larger problem looms. The Darkness, a sinister creature that has lived buried deep in the hills, begins calling to some of the teens in the FAYZ. Calling to them, guiding them, manipulating them.
The Darkness has awakened. And it is hungry.
Readers will be unable to avoid involuntarily gasping, shuddering, or flinching while reading this suspense-filled story. --Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA) (starred review)
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Don't miss out on the stunning DELUXE LIMITED EDITION while supplies last. This breathtaking collectible is only available on a limited first print run in the U.S. and Canada only, a must-have for any book lover.
John Wick meets The Giver in this post-apocalyptic teen survival young adult novel from bestselling author Jess Lourey.Selected as a BookLife Editor's Pick!
The Lightborne and the Darktouched have been at war for generations. While the soldiers of the Lightwatch hunt their enemy, those blessed by darkness seek refuge in the depths beneath the earth, hunting the abyss for treasures and knowledge.
When Lucas Devlin is thrust into the very heart of this conflict, his life is stripped away from him. Within the great hidden city known as the Abzu Complex, Lucas must learn the ways of the Darktouched and their ancient conflict with the Lightborne in order to save those he cares about.
But the web of fate is vast, and untold secrets and betrayals hide in the endless darkness of the void and the furthest reaches of the light...
Will appeal to readers of Roderick Gordon's Tunnels and T. Kingfisher's The Hollow Places.