Bestselling author of Scythe and Challenger Deep Neal Shusterman, here with coauthors Debra Young and Michelle Knowlden, tells an intense yet tender story of two teens, trapped in impossible circumstances and unjust systems, willing to risk everything for love—no matter the consequences.

BREAK TO YOU
by Neal Shusterman, Michelle Knowlden and Debra Young
HarperCollins, July 2024
(via Writers House)

Adriana knows why she is in Compass juvenile detention center: her bad taste in “friends.” If she can manage to keep her head down for the next seven months, she might be able to get through her sentence. Thankfully, she’s allowed to keep her journal, where she writes down her most private thoughts and observations when the pressure insider her is too much.

Until the day she opens her journal and discovers that her thoughts are no longer so private. Someone has read her entries and written back. A boy who lives on the other side of the gender-divided detention center. A boy who sparks a fire in her to write back.

Jon’s story is different from Adriana’s; he’s already been at Compass for years and will be in the system for years to come. Still, when he reads the words Adriana writes to him, it makes him feel like the walls that hold them could just melt away.

Neal Shusterman is the New York Times bestselling and award-winning authors of Challenger Deep, which won the National Book Award; Scythe, a Michael L. Printz Honor title; Game Changer; Dry; Bruiser; and the Unwind series, among many other books.

Michelle Knowlden is a former space shuttle engineer and the author of numerous Shamus Award-nominated stories. She has collaborated with Neal Shusterman on his Unbound and Gleanings anthologies. Her mystery novels include the Abishag quartet and the Deluded Detective series.

Debra Young writes fantasy, science fiction, and horror. She has published stories in The Horror Zine, Dark Fire Fiction, Swords and Sorcery Magazine, and Black Fox Literary Magazine, and is the author of Grave Shadows, a story anthology.