- Genre: Young Adult, Horror, Fantasy
- Published by: G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers
- Publish date: March 03, 2026
- Number of pages: 288 pages
- Author’s website: https://alexishenderson.com/
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Roslyn isn’t herself anymore. It’s been a year since her sister, Adeline, died under mysterious circumstances, and Roslyn is still tormented by her absence. So when the elusive caravan of girls that Adeline spent her last summer with rolls back into town, Roslyn joins them to finally figure out what happened to her sister.
Strange, beautiful, and intriguing, the girls are closed off from the world. And as it turns out, they’re brought together by a force more sinister than Roslyn’s nightmares could’ve conjured up: Death himself.
Death has spared the girls from untimely endings, and to pay for their lives, the girls travel the country reaping souls on his behalf. Now Roslyn must decide if finding closure is worth the price of striking the same deal.
Rating: 4.25/5
I will always ride for a book that explores the power of girlhood and friendships, and this book does this in a truly unexpected way. Going into this, I thought it was going to be a cult book that focused on the main character trying to escape it, but I was very wrong.
Still feeling lost a year after the death of her sister, Roslyn finds herself drawn to a group of girls that her sister used to hang out with. There’s something captivating about them, enough so that Roslyn decides to join them on their travels.
Roslyn quickly learns that these girls are answering to something much bigger than themselves. They are in debt to Death. In exchange for their lives, they have to feed Death other people’s souls.
I found this concept so intriguing and honestly terrifying. Death took advantage of these girls in their lowest moments or in their most dire of circumstances, and in order to survive, these girls have chosen themselves over everyone else. For a book about so much death, I saw even more desire for life and relationships. The cast of characters is fascinating too. All with different personalities and different reasons for how they ended up with Death. This book also spends a lot of time examining grief that I personally connected with. Finally, the ending is bittersweet but so satisfying!
Have you read this book? What are your thoughts? I’d love to know!
I received an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) of this book from Netgalley, Penguin Young Readers Group, and G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers. This has not impacted my rating and this review is voluntary.
Musings by Michelle 