After We Were Stolen

"Not a typical cult novel...Despite Avery's clear trauma and struggle for closure, her voice is strong and clear." – Booklist "Avery's voice resonates...Powerful and moving." – New York Journal of Books An emotionally wrought, psychologically twisty coming-of-age story perfect for book clubs about a girl who escapes from a cult after a deadly fire destroys her family's compound, only to be haunted by That Night as she tries to build a new life for herself. A fire. Her escape. And the realization her entire life has been a lie. When nineteen-year-old Avery awakens to flames consuming her family's remote compound, she knows it's her only chance to escape her father's grueling survival training, bizarre rules, and gruesome punishments. She and her brother Cole flee the grounds for the first time in their lives, suddenly homeless in a world they know nothing about. After months of hiding out, they are arrested for shoplifting and a shocking discovery is made, resulting in the pair being separated. Avery is alone and desperate. She is uncertain if her "parents" survived the fire and is terrified to find out. But when the police investigation reveals there may be more survivors, Avery must uncover the truth about the fire to truly be free. Suspenseful, emotionally charged, and deeply thought-provoking, After We Were Stolen delves into the idea of family—those we're born into and those we make—resilience, and the lengths a cult survivor will go to finally be free of her painful past. Praise for After We Were Stolen: "Brooke Beyfuss's After We Were Stolen kept me feverishly turning pages, anxious and eager to find out what happened to Avery and Cole as they emerge from a life they never asked for and into one they're totally unprepared to navigate." —Melanie Abrams, author of Meadowlark "After We Were Stolen is an intelligent and heartrending story of vulnerability, power, resistance, and redemption. An excellent read that is sure to be a favorite book club pick." —Rebecca Taylor, author of The Secret Next Door

A stunning debut novel with an intriguing literary hook: written in part as a letter from a victim to her abductor. Sensitive, sharp, captivating!Gemma, 16, is on layover at Bangkok Airport, en route with her parents to a vacation in Vietnam. She steps away for just a second, to get a cup of coffee. Ty--rugged, tan, too old, oddly familiar--pays for Gemma's drink. And drugs it. They talk. Their hands touch. And before Gemma knows what's happening, Ty takes her. Steals her away. The unknowing object of a long obsession, Gemma has been kidnapped by her stalker and brought to the desolate Australian Outback. STOLEN is her gripping story of survival, of how she has to come to terms with her living nightmare--or die trying to fight it.

Discover a new middle-grade fantasy saga from Melissa de la Cruz, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Descendants series, with Never After: The Stolen Slippers, where real life and fairy tales collide! Tossed back into the not-so-familiar fairy-tale world of Never After, Filomena Jefferson-Cho and her friends set off on another adventure . . . this time in search of Cinderella’s glass slipper. Or rather, glass slippers. It turns out the classic story of Cinderella is full of lies—starting with how Cinderella herself is far from the innocent heroine everyone thinks she is. She is manipulative and cunning—willing to do anything to be the princess of Eastphalia. The real heroines of her story are her “wicked” stepsisters, Hortense and Beatrice, who aren’t actually wicked at all! With the help of the dashing Jack Stalker, adorable Alastair, and glamorous Gretel, Filomena must track down the slippers, which may be the key to a certain mysterious prophecy . . . And when Filomena and Beatrice get tossed into the Beast’s dungeon, all hope seems to be lost. Will the conniving Cinderella shatter everyone’s hopes for a true un-twisted ending? Or will Filomena and her friends secure the happily ever after Cinderella’s stepsisters deserve?

A companion to Making Bombs for Hitler and The War Below, this novel follows a Ukrainian girl who was kidnapped as a child to be raised by a Nazi family. Nadia is haunted by World War II. Her memories of the war are messy, coming back to her in pieces and flashes she can't control. Though her adoptive mother says they are safe now, Nadia's flashbacks keep coming.Sometimes she remembers running, hunger, and isolation. But other times she remembers living with a German family, and attending big rallies where she was praised for her light hair and blue eyes. The puzzle pieces don't quite fit together, and Nadia is scared by what might be true. Could she have been raised by Nazis? Were they her real family? What part did she play in the war?What Nadia finally discovers about her own history will shock her. But only when she understands the past can she truly face her future.Inspired by startling true events, Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch delivers a gripping and poignant story of one girl's determination to uncover her truth.

The story of the beautiful relationship between a little girl and her grandfather. When she asks her grandfather how to say something in his language – Cree – he admits that his language was stolen from him when he was a boy. The little girl then sets out to help her grandfather find his language again. This sensitive and warmly illustrated picture book explores the intergenerational impact of the residential school system that separated young Indigenous children from their families. The story recognizes the pain of those whose culture and language were taken from them, how that pain is passed down, and how healing can also be shared.

A gripping chronicle of psychological manipulation and abuse at a “therapeutic” boarding school for troubled teens, and how one young woman fought to heal in the aftermath. At fifteen, Elizabeth Gilpin was an honor student, a state-ranked swimmer and a rising soccer star, but behind closed doors her undiagnosed depression was wreaking havoc on her life. Growing angrier by the day, she began skipping practices and drinking to excess. At a loss, her parents turned to an educational consultant who suggested Elizabeth be enrolled in a behavioral modification program. That recommendation would change her life forever. The nightmare began when she was abducted from her bed in the middle of the night by hired professionals and dropped off deep in the woods of Appalachia. Living with no real shelter was only the beginning of her ordeal: she was strip-searched, force-fed, her name was changed to a number and every moment was a test of physical survival. After three brutal months, Elizabeth was transferred to a boarding school in Southern Virginia that in reality functioned more like a prison. Its curriculum revolved around a perverse form of group therapy where students were psychologically abused and humiliated. Finally, at seventeen, Elizabeth convinced them she was rehabilitated enough to “graduate” and was released. In this eye-opening and unflinching book, Elizabeth recalls the horrors she endured, the friends she lost to suicide and addiction, and—years later—how she was finally able to pick up the pieces of her life and reclaim her identity.

No one with half a brain would rob the jungle's most notorious energy cartel—but their power-producing stones are the only thing that soothes Cacao's mysterious pain, and after being banished from his homeland for similar thefts, the lonely naga is desperate enough to try. When his ramshackle thievery goes wrong, a chaotic escape leaves him chained to the cartel's prisoner: a self-proclaimed hero with a hidden stash of power stones so large that Cacao would never need to steal again. He's determined to get his hands on it, even if it means guiding the annoyingly smug, annoyingly valiant, and even more annoyingly beautiful hero back home. But their path runs straight through the mist-laden and monster-filled swamp that exiled Cacao, with scheming poachers and a desperate cartel leader on their tail. The selfish and the self-righteous can only flee together for so long before something snaps... Return to the These Treacherous Tide's steampunk-inspired world of mermaids and reimagined mythological creatures in this fast-paced, standalone adventure with an insult-slinging, opposites attract, hate-to-love romance between a grouchy thief and a sassy, self-proclaimed hero.

The dual language edition, in Plains Cree and English, of Stolen Words, the award-winning story of the beautiful relationship between a little girl and her grandfather. When she asks her grandfather how to say something in Cree, he tells her that his language was stolen from him when he was a boy. The little girl then sets out to help her grandfather find his language again. This sensitive and warmly illustrated picture book explores the intergenerational impact of the residential school system that separated young Indigenous children from their families. The story recognizes the pain of those whose culture and language were taken from them, how that pain is passed down, and how healing can also be shared.