14 must-read new YA releases to beat the August heat

August 2021 release: Dark and Shallow Lies – Ginny Myers Sain

A teen girl disappears from her small town deep in the bayou, where magic festers beneath the surface of the swamp like water rot, in this chilling debut supernatural thriller for fans of Natasha Preston, Karen McManus, and Rory Power.

Dark and Shallow Lies is set in the tiny town of La Cachette, Louisiana, a place known as the Psychic Capital of the World, because almost every one of its limited number of residents can boast strange and potent abilities of some type.

The story follows seventeen-year-old Grey, whose best friend Elora disappeared six months earlier. Grey can’t believe a town full of psychics has no idea what happened to her, especially not when she herself is seeing disturbing visions – the kind that imply Elora unsuccessfully ran for her life from an unidentified threat.

But when Grey starts digging, she begins to realize that her small town is hiding a lot more secrets than Elora’s disappearance. An atmospheric supernatural story that’s as much about grief as it is the things we can’t see, Dark and Shallow Lies is a YA thriller with Southern Gothic twist.

The official synopsis offers a lot more detail about the story.

"La Cachette, Louisiana, is the worst place to be if you have something to hide. This tiny town, where seventeen-year-old Grey spends her summers, is the self-proclaimed Psychic Capital of the World–and the place where Elora Pellerin, Grey’s best friend, disappeared six months earlier. Grey can’t believe that Elora vanished into thin air any more than she can believe that nobody in a town full of psychics knows what happened. But as she digs into the night that Elora went missing, she begins to realize that everybody in town is hiding something – her grandmother Honey; her childhood crush Hart; and even her late mother, whose secrets continue to call to Grey from beyond the grave. When a mysterious stranger emerges from the bayou – a stormy-eyed boy with links to Elora and the town’s bloody history – Grey realizes that La Cachette’s past is far more present and dangerous than she’d ever understood. Suddenly, she doesn’t know who she can trust. In a town where secrets lurk just below the surface, and where a murderer is on the loose, nobody can be presumed innocent–and La Cachette’s dark and shallow lies may just rip the town apart."

Dark and Shallow Lies is available on August 31.

What YA titles are going are you planning to add to your must-read list this August? Let us know!