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by Erik J. Brown
A harrowing, edge-of-your-seat psychological thriller about a queer homeless teen who, in a bid for safety, assumes the identity of a boy who went missing ten years ago...only to find that his new home is anything but a safe haven—from All That's Left in the World author Erik J. Brown!
Perfect for fans of Karen McManus, Holly Jackson, and Ryan La Sala.
When a runaway teen is arrested for shoplifting, he's desperate not to be sent back to the hyper-religious parents he knows will never accept him. While at the police station, he notices a resemblance to the aged-up photos of Nate Beaumont, a child who went missing ten years ago—and, in a moment of desperation, he takes Nate's identity in hopes that it will help him make a quick getaway.
Before he can run again, Nate's family arrives and welcomes him home to a life he never had. As "Nate" watches and waits for his chance to escape, he finds that the Beaumonts are nurturing and loving, very different from his own parents.
But soon unsettling things start to happen—vandalism, alarms going off in the middle of the night—and it becomes clear that someone knows "Nate" isn't who he says he is...and that the real Nate wasn't kidnapped, but murdered.
As he starts to unravel the mystery, he gets ever closer to the devil he may know—and learns he might be their next victim.
"Readers won't be able to look away. A grisly, unflinching, and twisty page-turner that takes an honest look at human nature." ―Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Fuses survival thriller and suspenseful mystery to deliver a resonant psychological roller coaster." ―Publishers Weekly
"With a charming, whip-smart hero and a palpable evil lurking beneath a thin veneer of the suburban dream, Better the Devil is a propulsive, engaging page-turner you'll tear through in one sitting." ―Gretchen McNeil, author of Ten and #murdertrending
This information about Better the Devil 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.
Erik J. Brown is the internationally-bestselling author of All That's Left in the World and the sequel The Only Light Left Burning. His books have received starred reviews from Kirkus, The Bulletin of the Center of Children's Books, and ALA Booklist. His second novel, Lose You to Find Me, became a USA Today Bestseller. Erik is also the co-host of the YA Book Podcast YA-OK where he and Alyssa Ljub of Netflix's The Circle talk with new and established YA authors about writing, publishing, and all things YA! He lives in Philadelphia with his family.
If you liked Better the Devil, try these:
by Heather Young
Published 2021
A young boy finds himself at the center of a murder mystery in this timely and twisty thriller from the author of the acclaimed The Lost Girls - a compelling and indelible story set in small town America that examines the burden of guilt, the bitter price of forgiveness, and the debts we owe our dead, both recent and distant.
by Sarah Elaine Smith
Published 2020
Consumed by the longing for a different life, a teenager flees her family and carefully slips into another -- replacing a girl whose own sudden disappearance still haunts the town.
by Wendy Walker
Published 2018
A searing psychological thriller.
Sometimes I think we're alone. Sometimes I think we're not. In either case, the thought is staggering.
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