DO YOU EVER JUST WANT TO BE BELIEVED?
SIBLINGS LIV AND JORY BREWER have grown up resenting each other. Liv–former pageant queen and reality TV star–was groomed for a life in the spotlight, while her older brother, Jory, born with a partial facial paralysis, was left in the shadows. The only thing they have in common is contempt for their parents.
Now, Liv is suing her mom and dad for emancipation, and Jory views the whole thing as yet another attention-getting spectacle. But on the day of the verdict, their parents mysteriously vanish, and the siblings are forced to work together. Liv feels certain she knows where they are and suspects that Jory knows more than he’s telling… which is true.
What starts as a simple overnight road trip soon takes a turn for the dangerous and surreal. And as the duo speeds through the deserts of Nevada, brother and sister will unearth deep family secrets that force them to relive their pasts as they try to retain a grip on the present. Told from the split viewpoints of Liv and Jory, What We Buried is a psychological thrill ride that deftly explores how memories can lie, how time can bend, and how reconciling the truth can be a matter of life and death.
Bank Street College of Education Best Books of 2019
O: The Oprah Magazine’s 10 of the Best Young Adult Books You’ll Love in 2019
Cosmopolitan’s 11 Best Young Adult Books You’ll Be Obsessed With in 2019
Seventeen’s 10 Best YA Books of 2019 (So Far)
Bustle’s 12 Best YA Books Coming Out in February 2019
A February Must-Read by Hypable
Bookish’s February Book Club Pick
“Fans of weird stories will love this Twilight Zone-esque mystery. Every page invites new questions about what is happening and what is real, sucking readers into a funhouse world they will not want to escape. . . The journey this novel takes is compulsively entertaining.”
—VOYA magazine, starred review
“Nothing is scarier than utter disorientation, and Boorman’s road trip to hell wrings that fear for all its worth. It’s Twilight Zone by way of David Lynch—unclassifiable and deeply unsettling.”
—New York Times bestselling author Daniel Kraus
“A disintegrating distinction between life and death is a known marker of mental meltdown, but also of spirits haunting the scene of a crime. What We Buried skillfully alternates the two sides every story has, unafraid of clarity with one foot in bafflement.”
―The Center for Fiction
“The key to a truly successful mystery/detective story is the author’s clever use of misdirection, and in What We Buried, Boorman succeeds masterfully…[A] great read, one that will definitely play with readers’ minds.”
―CM Magazine
“…Liv’s and Jory’s alternating perspectives poignantly reckon with their individual and shared past and present. The author deftly handles a number of issues, including disability and the skeevy underside of pageants and reality shows, but the overarching theme is a sensitive exploration of child abuse and neglect. Vexing, poignant, and thought-provoking.”
—Kirkus Review