Together We Rot
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
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.
“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.”—Allison Saft, New York Times bestselling author of A Far Wilder Magic
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 one night 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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Former best friends Wilhelmina Green and Elwood Clarke must work together to save their small Michigan town from a terrifying religious cult in Arndt's spine-chilling debut. Teenage Wil's mother has been missing for over a year. Though local police insist that she skipped town, Wil is certain there's something sinister at play. Her solo investigation leads her to believe that the Garden of Adam, a religious organization run by her town's most influential family, has something to do with her mother's disappearance. Seventeen-year-old Elwood, meanwhile, has been doing his best to live up to his preacher father's expectations, especially knowing that he's expected to leave school at 18 and take up his father's mantle as the head of the Garden of Adam. But when Elwood discovers that his parents intend to sacrifice him to a mysterious entity in his town's surrounding woods, he flees. Wil agrees to hide him in exchange for help in proving that the Garden of Adam is responsible for her mother's vanishment. A meandering plot is buoyed by likable supporting characters, Wil and Elwood's snappy banter, and eerie, brooding atmosphere. Main characters read as white. Ages 12–up.
Customer Reviews
YA Horromance
Together We Rot is a horromance through and through. Wil, the spunky teenage protagonist in this story is someone you want to root for from the very beginning. Arndt is a fantastic writer and clearly knows her characters well. Wil is not only well developed but brimming with a distinctive YA voice. This is particularly clear in the opening scene in which Wil is demanding the town sherif to reopen the investigation behind her mother’s disappearance—something Wil has been investigating on her own over the past year. Although the police and the entire town believe that her mother simply skipped town, Wil is convinced something else is going on, and that Elwood’s cultish family is involved. Will gets closer to answers when she runs into Elwood who decided to run away from his family after finding out his fathers plan to offer him up as a sacrifice. So Elwood strikes a deal with Wil: if she will keep him hidden, he will help her find the evidence of his father’s involvement in her mother’s disappearance. From there, the story kicks up a notch and things move quickly! The pace is lightening fast and the book is on the short side. As a result, some parts of the story feel thin and other parts feel rushed over. However, the story holds up and delivers everything it has promised when it comes to the horror and the romance. This is a satisfying quick read that i highly recommend
Not worth $10.
It’s just a weird book