At Prentiss Everton Academy, the past doesn’t stay buried. . . and survival is the ultimate status symbol. Gossip Girl meets The Count of Monte Cristo in the new YA thriller from acclaimed author Jumata Emill.

THAT GIRL WON’T DIE
by Jumata Emill
Delacorte, January 2027
(via Writers House)

When Tessa Edmond steps onto the campus of Prentiss Everton Academy—the most exclusive all-Black boarding school in South Georgia—she’s immediately singled out. Students whisper. Teachers stare. Because Tessa looks exactly like Whitney Templeton, the super popular, well-connected golden girl of the school, who died three months ago in a so-called accidental drowning.

Tessa’s gone from rags to riches overnight, dropped into a world of privilege, power, and ruthless social hierarchies. At Prentiss Everton, reputations are everything—and Whitney’s former friends, rich, connected, and dangerous, don’t know what to make of the girl who looks like a ghost.

But no one suspects that Tessa and Whitney were estranged cousins, and that Tessa came to Prentiss Everton with a mission. She’s there to find out what really happened to Whitney. Because Whitney’s death certainly wasn’t an accident—and someone at the school knows it.

As secrets unravel and tensions explode, Tessa digs deeper into Whitney’s inner circle, using their lies against them. But the closer she gets to the truth, the more bodies start turning up, and soon Tessa realizes the same people who killed her cousin may be coming for her next.

Jumata Emill is the critically acclaimed author of The Black Queen, Wander in the Dark, and I Don’t Wish You Well. He earned his B.A. in mass communications from Southern University and A&M College, and now works as a journalist covering crime and politics. He’s a Pitch Wars alum and member of Crime Writers of Color. When he’s not writing about murderous teens, he’s watching and obsessively tweeting about every franchise of the Real Housewives.