Nah, I should think not. Looks like a bloody-nosed beetle to me, as Lute as they come.” He grins, and his face explodes with creases. “I’m not using profanity in front of your daughter, Lady Treadway, that’s honestly what they’re called. I’ll snap a picture and find out for sure. That’s what they’re paying me for, after all.” Nuanced . . . Thorne writes engagingly about complicated relationships, the importance of communication in understanding others’ perspectives, and the blindness of privilege. This book will fly off the shelves to a broad range of teens who will enjoy the humor and drama that Thorne brings to this story.” – VOYA, starred review

He laughs, and my mood lightens, a little, as much as it can. Yeah, this is a small island, but it’s also surrounded by churning Bristol Channel water, and Charlie is not a strong swimmer and… I cannot think about that. How could this have happened? He’s not like Emma; he never wanders off. There’s a tether between us, always, but something’s broken it today. Thorne’s subversion of folk horror tropes and focus on small, intimate beats make for a gripping reading experience." Oh, gosh.” My stomach drops the way it always does when someone goes out of their way to be nice. “Thank you. You really didn’t need to—” Two estranged sisters must band together to solve a puzzle three millennia in the making in this female-heroine take on Indiana Jones. Lute and its inhabitants are blessed, year after year, with good weather, good health, and good fortune. They live a happy, superior life, untouched by the war that rages all around them. So it’s only fair that every seven years, on the day of the tithe, the island’s gift is honored.

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Seen this one before?” He’s got his hand out low, flat, careful. He turns to wink at Emma. “This is a proper minibeast. Fancy saying hello?”

As I squint west past John’s head, my eye catches on a trio of brightly colored figures headed down toward the beach. They look so reassuringly ordinary. Six,” I correct, my pulse ratcheting up again. “Sorry, he’s six. He’s got dark hair, same color as mine, three and, um, three and a half feet tall? Maybe more?” It’s kind of amazing that they’re keeping this tradition going, even in wartime. In other places, they call tomorrow Midsummer or Alban Hefin. Here, we usually just call it “the solstice,” and have cream teas out in neighbors’ gardens, but not this year. This is the seventh solstice, which makes it “the Day.” Just in time, two hands appear as if from nowhere and snatch her into the parking lot while she wiggles wildly. “You can’t fly, fairy princess. You haven’t got your wings yet!” We’re thrilled to share an excerpt from Lute by Jennifer Thorne, out from Nightfire on October 4th.Disappointment sinks into my stomach, but it’s tempered with excitement of a different sort. The truth is, I was disappointed when Hugh suggested we get away this week. I’ve been so curious about the local traditions, so damn patient—waited nearly seven years for the mythical Day to come around—but Hugh seemed desperate to go.

Matthew flinches, his dark eyes darting away again, while John shifts uncomfortably a few yards down the path. Or maybe it’s more that we can’t face the full reality of it, the images we get in the news—all those occupied countries, cities gone dark in military curfew or reduced to rubble, bloated bodies washing up on the shores of practically every continent, refugee camps growing and burning down and growing again, rows upon rows of draped soldiers ready for sorting and sending home. John is already nodding down the path, setting off toward the sound. “What did I tell you? Young historian. He’s gone straight for the area of outstanding…” But she’s never experienced The Day, either. She met Hugh Treadway on a cruise, seven years ago on The Day. Hugh thinks he’s going to take them all to the mainland for an anniversary trip so that he can avoid, yet again, the potential consequences of The Day. When Lute keeps them home, Nina gets to experience The Day for herself – as she and her children are held hostage to a potential fate that she refused to believe in – until it was too late.

When Hugh’s attempts to get his family off the island fail in every possible way, the family hunkers down to prepare for what’s to come. Nina isn’t sure what to expect, but as her friends keep reminding her, she will soon understand, once the Day is over.