NATURAL SELECTION

Grin and bear it? No thanks. They'd rather burn it all down.

Megan, Meagan, and Meghan have three things in common: their name (obviously), their postage-stamp-sized, hell-hole of a town, and Kevin Johnson. Each has been his victim in one way or another, and at this year's homecoming bonfire, it's time for him to pay. But their plan for a (mostly) harmless prank goes sideways, and now they have a body on their hands. To top it all off, an early season blizzard and a huge Grizzly send the evening into chaos. And when the bear drags Kevin's lifeless body into the woods with only the girls as witnesses, they have the perfect cover: It was the bear. But the bear continues to stalk the town. One by one, other men and boys with histories (or at least rumours) of abuse turn up dead. Kevin's brother seeks justice in the form of a hunting trophy, but his hunt ends in a 911 call in which the sounds of a bear attack are heard by the dispatcher. The last words anyone can make out before the line goes dead are, "It's Megan." No one's certain which Megan he meant, so the town turns on all three girls. They were the last to see Kevin alive, after all. They're accused of somehow controlling or baiting the bears as Riverside goes full 1690s Salem. With gaps in their memories and dirt under their fingernails, the girls are keeping secrets of their own - from the police, and from each other. They don't even fully understand the truth themselves. Maybe they are witches. Maybe something happened the night Kevin died that changed them, for better or worse. Then one of the girls wakes up naked in the woods. She isn't alone. And the figure running away from her - a spectre from Riverside's past - turns out to be the key to unlocking the mysterious attacks plaguing (or protecting) the town. Clare Edge (they/she) is an author (and witch) who was raised in a tiny, rural town in the Rocky Mountains where they were taught to be "bear aware" before they were taught "stranger danger." They hold master's degrees from the University of Limerick's Irish World Academy of Music and Dance (MA) & the University of Montana (MFA). Their graduate research explored how we make and translate meaning through story. Clare's debut middle grade series Accidental Demons was published by Harper last month, and follows the misadventures of a diabetic witch who can't stop conjuring demons when she tests her blood sugar.