Vendor
	Mohrbooks Literary Agency Annelie Geissler
Categories
Children’s, Teenage & Educational

TOGETHER WE ROT

Skyla Arndt

A teen girl looking for the truth about her missing mother forms a reluctant alliance with her former best friend... in exchange for hiding him from his cult-leading family.

Wil Greene's mom has been missing for over a year, and the police are ready to call the case closed - they claim she skipped town and you can't find a woman who wants to disappear. But she knows her mom wouldn't just leave... and she knows the family of her former best friend, Elwood Clarke, has something to do with it. Elwood has been counting down the days until his 18th birthday - in dread. It marks leaving school and joining his pastor father in dedicating his life to their congregation, the Garden of Adam. But when he comes home after one night of after a final goodbye with his friends, already self-flagellating for the sins of drinking and disobeying his father, he discovers his path is not as virtuous as he thought. He's not his father's successor, but his sacrifice. For the woods he's grown up with are thirsty, and must be paid in blood. Now on the run from a family that wants him dead, he turns to the only one who will believe him: Wil. Together, they form a reluctant partnership; she'll help him hide if he helps her find evidence that his family killed her mother. But in the end they dig up more secrets than they bargained for, unraveling decades of dark cult dealings in their town, led by the Clarke family. And there's a reason they need Elwood's blood for their satanic rituals. Something inhuman is growing inside of him. Everywhere he goes, the plants come alive and the forest calls to him, and Wil isn't sure if she can save the boy she can't help but love. Skyla Arndt has always loved the creepy, crawly side of life. When she was younger, she thought that love might translate to hunting Bigfoot, but luckily for him, writing proved easier. Together We Rot is her debut novel.

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Book Published 2023-08-29 by Viking

Comments

Horror for the romantically inclined and romance for the horror-curious, TOGETHER WE ROT is an eerie, propulsive, expertly crafted debut. It will weave its way through you like a tree's twisted roots, and you will be grateful for the strange flowers it grows.

[S]pine-chilling.[with] snappy banter, and eerie, brooding atmosphere.

[One] of the most exciting titles to be released between the months of July and December.

Together We Rot is an atmospheric, twisty read that seamlessly blends horror and romance. Arndt's incisive character work and punchy prose conjure two leads who are impossible not to root for, and her immersive, well-drawn setting is a riveting character of its own. An impressive debut.

#5 on the Barnes & Noble YA bestseller list

TOGETHER WE ROT will leave you gasping for air as the insidious vines and tangled roots of Pine Point and the Garden of Adam snake their way around your throat and burrow deep into your heart. This is the kind of story that lulls you with lush writing and darkly beautiful imagery, then stuns you with the terror and decay that lie buried just below the surface.

All hail the new queen of YA horrormance! Arndt's unputdownable debut crackles with wit and seethes with terrors just beneath the surface. Equal parts tender and grisly, Together We Rot will sink its roots into you.

As Wil and Elwood go up against a sinister and dangerous plan, generations in the making, readers will follow their personal and literal journeys with bated breath, making this debut novel a solid choice for fans of supernatural horror and gothic romance.

French: Albin Michel ; Polish: Dariusz Marszalek ; Brazilian Portuguese: Universo dos Livros ; Turkish: Artemis

Skyla Arndt perfectly captures the bleak, eerie atmosphere of an isolated town in the depths of winter in this story of lovers-turned-enemies drawn back together by a bloodied legacy. With the visceral chills of American Horror Story and the insidious mystery of C.L. Herman's The Devouring Grey, Arndt serves the best combination of horror and romance, ideal for reading late at night as the cold creeps in.

Arndt's sparkling prose deftly explores the complicated nature of loyalty and religion against the lush background of the forests of the Upper Peninsula. The mythology of the town and its founders is compelling and convincing, setting up the history for the story at hand... Haunting and spellbinding. Read more...