Kristen Simmons’s masterful breakout novel, the first in a duology, is “Jumanji but Japanese-inspired” (Kendare Blake) about estranged friends playing a deadly game in an eerie folkloric underworld.
FIND HIM WHERE YOU LEFT HIM DEAD
by Kristen Simmons
Tor Teen, October 2023
Four years ago, five kids started a game. Only four survived. Now, at the end of their senior year of high school, the survivors—Dax, Maddy, Emerson, and Owen—have reunited for one strange and terrible reason: they’ve been summoned by the ghost of Ian, the friend they left for dead. Together they return to the tunnel where their friendship ended with one goal: find Ian and bring him home. So they restart the deadly game they never finished—an innocent card-matching challenge called Meido. A game without instructions. As soon as they begin, they’re dragged out of their reality and into an eerie hellscape of Japanese underworlds, more horrifying than even the darkest folktales that Owen’s grandmother told him. There, they meet Shinigami, an old wise woman who explains the rules: They have one night to complete seven challenges or all of them, even Ian, will be stuck in this world forever. Once inseparable, the survivors now can’t stand each other, but the challenges demand they work together, think quickly, and make sacrifices—blood, clothes, secrets, memories, and worse. And once again, not everyone will make it out of Meido alive.
“Kristen Simmons’s FIND HIM WHERE YOU LEFT HIM DEAD throws the reader into an intense horror-action game—like Jumanji but Japanese-inspired and really disturbing.”—Kendare Blake, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Anna Dressed in Blood and the Three Dark Crowns series
“Heart-pounding, immersive, and chilling. I couldn’t put this book down, and can’t get it out of my head!”—Margaret Rogerson, New York Times bestselling author of An Enchantment of Ravens
Kristen Simmons is the critically-acclaimed young adult author of more than a dozen books, including the Article 5 series, The Glass Arrow, Metaltown and The Deceivers. Her writing is inspired by her work with trauma survivors as a mental health therapist. She currently lives with her husband and son in Cincinnati, Ohio, where she spins stories, herds a small pack of semi-wild dogs, and teaches Jazzercise.
It’s 1979, and Jasmine Zumideh is ready to get the heck out of her stale, Southern California suburb and into her dream school, NYU, where she’ll major in journalism and cover New York City’s exploding music scene. There’s just one teeny problem: Due to a deadline snafu, she maaaaaaybe said she was Senior Class President-Elect on her application―before the election takes place. But honestly, she’s running against Gerald Thomas, a rigid rule-follower whose platform includes reinstating a dress code―there’s no way she can lose. And she better not, or NYU will rescind her application. But then, an international incident turns the election upside down: a group of students in Iran, fed up with the U.S.’s interference in Iranian politics, takes the American Embassy in Tehran―and the people within it―hostage. And, as the Iran Hostage Crisis dominates the nightly news, her opponent seizes the opportunity to stir up anti-Iranian sentiment at school and turn the electorate against her―with the help of her outspoken brother, who never stops talking about it. Now, as the white lie she told snowballs into an avalanche, Jasmine is stuck between claiming her heritage or hiding it, standing by her outspoken brother or turning her back on him, winning the election or abandoning her dreams for good.
Andie Rose has a plan. Transfer to the illustrious Blue Ridge State mid-Freshman year. Major in psychology. Become an iconic self-help figure. Create a lasting, positive impression on the world just like her larger-than-life, beloved talk-radio host mom
Book 1: STACEY CASEY AND THE HOUSE THAT TIME REMEMBERED
Book 2: STACEY CASEY AND THE CHEEKY OUTLAW
Book 6: THE ADVENTURERS AND THE SEA OF DISCOVERY