June 1, 2020
A 16-year-old underdog wanders a highway through Hell on a not-quite-hero's journey. A few pages into this first-person worldbuilding fantasy, Sam Sullinger is mortified by a candid photo album of humiliating photos shared online. Worse still: This isn't unusual, as Sam's life is defined by bullying. At school, ringleader Kyle McGee has tormented him since sixth grade; at home, his own father regularly belittles him. Two people have kept Sam afloat amid the anguish. Uncle Bear, his mother's gay, worldly, wheelchair-using brother, captivated him with legends chronicled in The Books of Hell. Then there's Harper James: smart, tough, and pretty, his lifelong defender and crush, and, in two weeks, off to Paris for a yearlong exchange program. Worried he'll lose Harper forever, Sam develops a plan to tell her how he feels. It backfires spectacularly. When Harper disappears into an all-too-real Hell, Sam realizes help isn't coming and follows, hoping to petition Stolas, a slave-turned-liberating king, for aid. While Hell is indeed hell, it also subverts his expectations. Sam forms a romantically tinged alliance with teen badass Hollinshead; comes to see demons as people rather than deities; and, most importantly, realizes The Books of Hell sold him falsehoods, especially about Stolas. Can Sam locate Harper, defeat Stolas, and find a way home--or has he exchanged one hell for another? Excluding demons, characters are Canadian and coded as white. A tribute to lovable losers, unlikely adventures, uncomfortable truths, and the will to move forward. (Fantasy. 14-18)
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