From debut author LL Curtis comes a stunning thriller about a girl who must lead the crusade to unite her village with other survivors of the Great Drought against northern invasion. Greer was sixteen when she saw her first magnolia tree rising from a dry lake bed in the woods behind her foster uncle’s farm. Protected from the horrors of starvation and lawlessness in her remote Tennessee mountain village—farmers with the grit and intelligence to adapt to a changing climate and landscape—Greer grows into an independent young woman with a talent for locating deep underground water sources. Forbidden to enter the woods behind her uncle's farm, Greer finally explores the dying forest and discovers long hidden secrets amid the ruins of an old asylum—secrets that will tear her family and community apart when their survival depends on standing together against brutal northern warlords.
