A better world : a novel / Sarah Langan.
"You'll be safe here. That's what the greasy tour guide tells the Farmer-Bowens when they visit Plymouth Valley, a walled-off company town with clean air, pantries that never go empty, and blue-ribbon schools. On a very trial basis, the company offers to hire Linda Farmer's husband, a numbers genius, and relocate her whole family to this bucolic paradise for the .0001%. Though Linda will have to sacrifice her medical career back home, the family jumps at the opportunity. They'd be crazy not to take it. With the outside world literally falling apart, this might be the Farmer-Bowens last chance. But fitting in takes work. The pampered locals distrust outsiders, cruelly snubbing Linda, Russell, and their teen twins. And the residents fervently adhere to a group of customs and beliefs called Hollow ... but what exactly is Hollow? It's Linda who brokers acceptance by volunteering her medical skills to the most powerful people in town with their pet charity, ActHollow. In the months afterward, everything seems fine. Sure, Russell starts hyperventilating through a paper bag in the middle of the night, and the kids have drifted like bridgeless islands, but living here's worth sacrificing their family's closeness, isn't it? At least they'll survive. The trouble is, the locals never say what they think. They seem scared. And Hollow's ominous culminating event, the Plymouth Valley Winter Festival, is coming. Linda's warned by her husband and her powerful new friends to stop asking questions. But the more she learns, the more frightened she becomes. Should the Farmer-Bowens be fighting to stay, or fighting to get out?"-- Provided by publisher.
Record details
- ISBN: 9781982191061 (hardcover)
- Physical Description: 356 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
- Edition: First Atria Books hardcover edition.
- Publisher: New York : Atria Books, 2024.
Search for related items by subject
Subject: | Company towns > Fiction. Elite (Social sciences) > Fiction. Families > Fiction. Secrecy > Fiction. |
Genre: | Thrillers (Fiction) Psychological fiction. Novels. |
Available copies
- 1 of 1 copy available at Tsuga Consortium.
Holds
- 0 current holds with 1 total copy.
Show Only Available Copies
Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Status | Due Date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Cookstown Branch | FIC Langa | 31681010367589 | FICTION | Available | - |
- Baker & Taylor
A family jumps at the chance to trade a crumbling world for a pristine utopia for the wealthy, but their discomfort mounts as sinister secrets and the terrifying truth behind the enclaveâs idyllic façade are revealed. - Simon and Schuster
For fans of Nightbitch and While No One Is Watching, comes âone of the best books this year, or any yearâ (Paul Tremblay, author of The Cabin at the End of the World)âa disturbing dystopian thrillfest about a woman moving to a glittering town of the future, whose investigation of a local tragedy puts a target on her back.
Youâll be safe here.
Thatâs what the tour guide promises Dr. Linda Farmer and her family when they move to Plymouth Valley. Sure, the locals are privileged hot house flowers who observe a weird religion Hollow, but the schools are blue ribbon, the airâs clean, the foodâs fantastic, and Lindaâs out of options. With the outside world in shambles, this move is her familyâs last chance.
Linda, her husband, and their teen twins work hard to fit in, accommodating their square peg personalities into rounded holes. It works at firstâthe family rise up, gaining acceptance from the powerful elite. Then Linda encounters Gal Parker, a hot mess of a woman, whose wife has abandoned her and whose kids are sick. One terrible night, Gal commits an unthinkable act.
All of Plymouth Valley turns on Gal, refusing to speak her name. But Linda canât stop wondering: what would drive a woman to do something so awful? The more she learns, the more frightened she becomes. A clock is ticking, tooâbefore the Plymouth Valley Winter Festival, Lindaâs got to figure out: should she and her family be fighting to stay, or fighting their way out?
A heart-poundingly ruthless dissection of wealth, power, and privilege, A Better World is âmore terrifying with every turn of the pageâ (Booklist, starred review) from a writer who ânever ceases to amazeâ (Gillian Flynn).