A Barnes & Noble YA Book Club Pick
An Amazon Editors’ Best YA Pick
An Indie Next Pick
An Indigo Best Teen Book of 2022
A Junior Library Guild Selection
A Goodreads Most Anticipated YA Book
Hemlock Falls isn’t like other towns. You won’t find it on a map, your phone won’t work there, and the forest outside town might just kill you…
Winnie Wednesday wants nothing more than to join the Luminaries, the ancient order that protects Winnie’s town―and the rest of humanity―from the monsters and nightmares that rise in the forest of Hemlock Falls every night.
Ever since her father was exposed as a witch and a traitor, Winnie and her family have been shunned. But on her sixteenth birthday, she can take the deadly Luminary hunter trials and prove herself true and loyal―and restore her family’s good name. Or die trying.
But in order to survive, Winnie must enlist the help of the one person who can help her train: Jay Friday, resident bad boy and Winnie’s ex-best friend. While Jay might be the most promising new hunter in Hemlock Falls, he also seems to know more about the nightmares of the forest than he should.
Together, he and Winnie will discover a danger lurking in the forest no one in Hemlock Falls is prepared for.
Not all monsters can be slain, and not all nightmares are confined to the dark.
My newest book, The Luminaries, is in stores today!
Hooray! As you can probably tell from the summary above, The Luminaries is pure YA in that classic sense, with a sixteen-year-old heroine who is trying to navigate high school and the secret world she lives in…and also, ya know, stay alive!
This book has everything I love most in it because that was what I needed when I wrote it based on our Twitter adventure from 2019. I was a new mom in a pandemic with no family or support nearby, and after nearly dying in childbirth, I had a long road of physical recovery ahead.
So all I wanted was “comfort food.” And thus, this version of The Luminaries was born. It has all my favorite tropes:
friends to enemies to….?
a secret society with different clans defined by different traits
monsters!!! creeeepy monsters!
slow burn romantic tension
epic friendship!
popular girls who aren’t mean!
an underdog outcast
AND MORE I CANNOT SHARE WITHOUT SPOILING!
And as the first in a trilogy, we’re only just getting started with all of the signature Sooz twists and mysteries you have come to expect from me…
To everyone who has already grabbed a copy: thank you for supporting me.
And to everyone else, I shall leave you with this link to ALL the versions you can currently acquire.
Don’t forget to pick up your enamel pin as a gift for buying! You have until 11/7/22 to submit your receipts!
Or hey, join in the newest Sooz Your Own Adventure, happening right now on Twitter!
Lastly, I’m out on tour as of today! So I hope I get to see some of you along the way.
Thank you, thank you for reading and supporting me! And remember: The forest is dangerous for a Luminary untrained…
💚 - Sooz
So many congrats, friend! I’m so excited for readers to fall in love with Winnie and Hemlock Falls! 🖤
Congratulations 🥳 My pre-ordered copy was delivered today!