cover image Ruthless

Ruthless

Carolyn Lee Adams. Simon Pulse, $17.99 (256p) ISBN 978-1-4814-2262-8

In Adams%E2%80%99s thrilling, horror-tinged debut, 17-year-old Ruth Carver refuses to be a victim even after she is abducted by a disturbed man she names %E2%80%9CWolfman,%E2%80%9D severely injured, and taken to a cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Ruth is told that no one is looking for her%E2%80%94Wolfman intends to break Ruth psychologically and then kill her as he did six other redheads who he deemed needed to be punished. She narrowly escapes his grasp, but then is faced with surviving the wilderness as he hunts her down. When the tables turn, Ruth must determine the extent to which she will seek retribution. Readers will feel completely submerged in Ruth%E2%80%99s first-person, present-tense narrative, which alternates with third-person chapters that provide glimpses into Ruth and Wolfman%E2%80%99s pasts. Though Adams focuses primarily on Ruth%E2%80%99s will to escape her captor within the present, it%E2%80%99s clear that these past experiences have helped form her inner core of resilience. An intense and unsettling survival story. Ages 14%E2%80%93up. Agent: Mandy Hubbard, D4EO Literary Agency. (July)