Alphabet

High in the mountains, Zel lives with her mother, who insists they have all they need—for they have each other. Zel's life is peaceful and protected—until a chance encounter changes everything. When she meets a beautiful young prince at the market one day, she is profoundly moved by new emotions. But Zel's mother sees the future unfolding—and she will do the unspeakable to prevent Zel from leaving her...

A girl's letters to her best friend reveal two lives derailed by anorexia in this haunting debut that's Laurie Halse Anderson's Wintergirls meets The Sixth Sense. Zoe knows she doesn’t belong in a hospital—so why is she in one? Twin Birch isn’t just any hospital. It’s a strange mansion populated by unnerving staff and glassy-eyed patients. It’s a place for girls with serious problems; skinny, spindly girls who have a penchant for harming themselves. Zoe isn’t like them. And she can’t figure out why she was sent here. Writing letters to her best friend Elise keep her sane, grounded in the memories of her past—but mired in them, too. Elise never writes back. Zoe is lost without her, unsure of how to navigate tenuous new friendships and bizarre rules without Elise by her side. But as her letters intertwine with journal entries chronicling her mysterious life at Twin Birch, another narrative unfolds. The hidden story of a complicated friendship; of the choices we make, the truths we tell others, and the lies we tell ourselves. The story of a friendship that has the potential to both save—and damage beyond repair. And Zoe finds she must confront the truth about her past once and for all, before she can finally let go. Nora Price’s debut novel is a heart-wrenching meditation on the bonds of friendship with a gripping psychological twist.

My name is Z, and if there is one thing I know, it's that amnesia sucks. I have no memories of my life before I was found practically freezing to death in the snowy streets of Detroit, Michigan. Within a year, my foster family—the Torrezes—adopt me and my kick-ass brother, Toby. Everything seems perfect, which of course means it all has to fall apart. Once again orphans, we are now on the run for murder. On my eighteenth birthday the unthinkable happens. Pulled from this world by a familiar stranger, I find myself in another dimension, where magic is reality. Faced with my forgotten past and a terrifying future, I must accept my role as princess and save a kingdom I never knew I had.