Dead End Girls

Maude has one week left before she dies, or before everyone believes she has. After years of research she has worked out how, when and where to fake her own death, and she has chosen the person who will help without knowing it.

Her reasons are tangled. Part of it is revenge on parents she considers terrible. Part of it is l'appel du vide, the call of the void, which pulls her toward a life where she belongs to no one and drifts free.

Then Frankie, a step-cousin Maude barely knows, works out what she is planning. Maude expects the scheme to collapse. Frankie has no intention of turning her in and wants to come along instead. Frankie is also trying to get away from a menacing family.

This is a queer contemporary thriller for teens, told around two girls who vanish into an unknown life and risk everything for it. A love story grows while their circumstances fall apart, and the book hints that the trouble they flee may run deeper than the people they leave behind. Expect a fast, tense read with a mystery running underneath.