In post-atomic New York, one girl is selected to pay off her mother's debt by dying-or killing-in a televised Gauntlet but instead falls in love with the assassin, in this sapphic stand-alone postapocalyptic romance with a “Hunger Games” twist, perfect for fans of “Wilder Girls” and “The Last of Us.”
Inesa has spent her whole life feeling like a land animal in a drowning world. She's grown up in a city that's sinking, after an Atomic Age claimed much of the country and left New Amsterdam amongst rising waters, buoyed only by Caerus, a company that sells everything from food to electricity, all on credit. And Inesa knows the price of going into the red, so she refuses to take on any debt.
Melinoë works for Caerus, but not in their warehouse. Her job is to give the citizens of New Amsterdam hope and spectacle as a so-called Angel, by hunting and killing those who fall too deeply into debt in the televised Gauntlet. After nearly failing to complete her last mission, she has to prove her worth or she'll have her memory wiped and live the rest of her life as an empty shell, unwilling wife to some executive twice her age.
When Inesa's mom secretly incurs over 500,000 credits of debt and nominates Inesa as a Lamb for the next Gauntlet, her only hope is to run-into Drowned County, the irradiated land between New Amsterdam and the Dominion of New England. With Melinoë tracking her, and mutated animals, and humans, attacking, Inesa will have to adapt or die. If she survives, Melinoë's life is over. That is, until they both end up stranded, injured, and isolated, and their only hope for survival is each other. When the cameras are off, can they become more than just an Angel and a Lamb?
And what happens when they both want to do more than just survive?
From Ava Reid, author of “A Study in Drowning”, comes a vital look at the cost of living, the many debts we incur, and the love we must fight for, all set in an eerily dark mirror of our own world.
