Everyone knows Emma. Neeshaâs her best friend, Aidenâs her basketball star boyfriend, and Evanâs her shadow, following Emmaâs every move.
Emma stands out, which is hard to do at Redemption Prep, a school where every student has been handpicked to attend its remote campus in the forest of Utah. So when she goes missing in plain sight during mass, everyone notices.
And everyone becomes a suspect, especially at a school with so many rules: Donât skip mass. Donât break curfew. Donât go into the woods.
Emmaâs disappearance ignites an investigation, and Neesha, Aiden, and Evan all want to find herâfor different reasons. But they each have their own secrets to hide, and not everyone wants Emma to be found.
As the search continues, the students start to realize that theyâre not the only ones trying to hide something. Redemption Prep has secrets, tooâsecrets bigger than any of the students could have imagined, and Emma could be the key to finding out the truth . . . if anyone can find her.
Samuel Miller is a novelist and screenwriter; made in Vermillion, South Dakota, based in Las Vegas, Nevada. He is the author of Dark Parts of the Universe, which earned several starred reviews, Redemption Prep, a New York Times and Indie Bestseller, and A Lite Too Bright, which was translated into four languages and released in eight countries. He has written television shows for Netflix, MGM/Amazon, and The CW. He has also written and produced two feature films, including Smudge the Blades, which premiered in 2026 at the Toronto International Film Festival. Sam wrote his first novel in a fifteen-passenger van while on tour with his alt-rock band, Paradise Fears. In addition to writing, he enjoys playing catch with his three-year-old son and working to dismantle capitalist systems of power. You can find him online at samuelmillerbooks.com.