The Blanks (The Shivers Collection, #3)

by Grady Hendrix

out here with no cars, fewer screens, and slower schedules, everyone was their best self.

Back in the city, their classmates have panic attacks and social anxiety. They have eating disorders and self-harm. But every summer, Zee and Callum and our neighbors’ kids run free with sand in their hair and sunburn on their noses, and they go back to the city with a force field of self-confidence and independence that keeps them safe. It was so good for sixteen years. Until the Litvaks.

“He should have known better,” Steven whispers, then rephrases. “We should have taught him better.” “Mistakes” is too small a word for the things parents do.

because you’re not supposed to see them, no one sees them; you look away, you ignore them—everyone knows you ignore them; as long as you don’t see them, everything is okay; as long as you don’t notice them, you’re lucky. You’re blessed.