The Drowning Game by Dusti Bowling. 288 p. Union Square & Company/ Hachette Book Group, October 13, 2026. 9781454957089.
I saw a tweet the other day from Dusti Bowling announcing her YA debut. Her book, Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus, was our One Book, One School choice in the fall of 2023. The PTO paid for Ms. Bowling to visit the school at the culmination of our school-wide read in November. (Unfortunately for me, I was hospitalized about a week later and ended up on a medical leave for a long time.) Her presentation was fun and engaging.
I have read and enjoyed most of her middle grade novels and really look forward to her YA debut.
The Drowning Game is due out on October 13, and here's the publisher synopsis:
Award-winning author Dusti Bowling masterfully crafts a wild ride on Arizona’s Salt River in this thriller inspired by Hitchcock’sVertigo that’s perfect for fans of Holly Jackson and Karen M. McManus.
It’s the late 1990s, and seventeen-year-old Christian is content with his summer plans to work and hang out with his cat, when he gets a phone call from his best friend that will change his life forever. James invites Christian to Arizona for a whitewater rafting trip, even though he knows Christian is terrified of water. But James is persuasive, and Christian relents.
In Salt River Canyon, the heat is scorching, and so is James’s pretty girlfriend, Freya. However, something seems off between the couple as bitter words fly. When James and the others disappear in the second raft, Christian and Freya are left to face the rapids alone. Disaster strikes when Freya falls into the river, and Christian is frozen with fear.
One year later, Christian is still wracked with guilt over Freya’s death. Now, he’s a freshman at Arizona State University, and he thinks he sees Freya on campus. It can’t be her. Freya is dead, after all. They found her body. Didn’t they? Christian follows Madison, the girl who looks like Freya, everywhere. He was certain Freya had died that day, but now he’s certain Madison is Freya. Will he ever find out what’s real? Or will his obsession be his downfall?
There were a ton of Karen McManus fans at my school, so they should be stoked for this. Happy reading!
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