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Published Jul 2021
432 pages
Genre: Thrillers
Publication Information
New York Times bestselling author Miranda Beverly-Whittemore's Fierce Little Thing is a mesmerizing story of friendship and its reckonings.
"It's time to come Home. All five of you. Or else."
Saskia was a damaged, lonely teenager when she arrived at the lakeside commune called Home. She was entranced by the tang of sourdough starter; the midnight call of the loons; the triumph of foraging wild mushrooms from the forest floor. But most of all she was taken with Abraham, Home's charismatic leader, the North Star to Saskia and the four other teens who lived there, her best and only friends.
Two decades later, Saskia is shuttered in her Connecticut estate, estranged from the others. Her carefully walled life is torn open by threatening letters. Unless she and her former friends return to the land in rural Maine, the terrible thing they did as teenagers―their last-ditch attempt to save Home―will be revealed.
From vastly different lives, the five return to confront their blackmailer and reckon with the horror that split them apart. How far will they go to bury their secret forever?
"As the tightly structured chapters toggle between Saskia's past and present, Beverly-Whittemore deftly ratchets up the tension by slowly, almost imperceptibly revealing the psychological troubles haunting not only Saskia, but also Abraham...A compelling study of power, sociopathy, and the possibilities of survival." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Saskia's evocative, elegiac narration cycles rapidly between past and present, escalating pace and imparting suspense while developing the keenly rendered characters and their thorny histories. Not every revelation feels earned, but on balance, Beverly-Whittemore delivers a twisty, rewarding tale of friendship, secrets, and childhood trauma. Donna Tartt fans, take note." - Publishers Weekly
"Fierce Little Thing devoured me whole. It is at once a propulsive, perfectly plotted thriller and an exquisitely written, marvelously dark coming-of-age story. Once I opened it, I couldn't stop turning the pages. Once I finished it, it continued to haunt my thoughts. A spectacular and consuming read." - Cristina Alger, New York Times bestselling author of Girls Like Us
"Gorgeously written and brilliantly structured, Fierce Little Thing is a suspenseful, evocative coming-of-age tale about the unique worth of old friendships and the profound challenge of finding your true place in the world." - Kimberly McCreight, New York Times bestselling author of A Good Marriage
"Fierce Little Thing is Miranda Beverly-Whittemore at her finest. A moody, gripping, and profoundly haunting story of a young girl desperate for connection and salvation. Beverly-Whittemore renders a wild, treacherous world and invites us to stand perilously close to the edge." - Taylor Jenkins Reid, New York Times bestselling author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
This information about Fierce Little Thing was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Miranda Beverly-Whittemore is the New York Times bestselling author of Bittersweet, June, Set Me Free, and The Effects of Light. A recipient of the Crazyhorse Prize in Fiction, she lives and writes in Brooklyn.
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