Sara Flannery Murphy

From the author of Girl One comes a spellbinding adventure about a strange power lurking in the Arkansas Ozarks, and the group of friends obsessed with finding it.

Five friends arrive back in Eternal Springs, the small town they all fled after high-school graduation. Each of them is drawn home by a cryptic, scrawled two-word letter: You promised.

It has been fifteen years since that life-changing summer, and they're anxious to find out why Brandi called them back, especially when they vowed never to return.

But Brandi is missing. She'd been acting erratically for months, in and out of rehab, railing at whoever might listen about magic all around them. About a power they can't see. And strange houses that appear only when you need them . . .

Told in two enthralling time lines, The Wonder State is a stunning, immersive follow-up to Girl One. Sara Flannery Murphy has created another dazzling, genre-blurring novel—an adventure story laced with nostalgia and magic, exploring belonging and the lasting power of community.

A Novel

The Wonder State

Syrina

To Miles and August: may you always explore freely while knowing home is waiting

And to everyone who grew up secretly hoping that every ordinary doorway would lead to magic

the expensive views of the lake wasting away in those picture windows

The Motts are the new type of tourists, thronging in to revitalize, reinvigorate, other shiny verbs that hide what they intend to do. Replace. Remove.

Jay started bringing her hand up to hide her mouth when she laughed. The Ozarks version of braces.

the hot sparkle of fireflies against the dusk

Jay was a water balloon, tight with unshed tears.

The Wonder State quotes

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