A gleefully dark and entertaining debut for fans of Kevin Wilson and Karen Russell about a young woman’s summer spent working at a Floridian wildlife center for exotic monkeys.
Jamie is a Florida Woman. She wears cutoffs, thrives in humidity, has been slapped by palm frond more times than she can count and now, after going viral for an outrageous crime she never meant to commit in the first place, she has the requisite headline to her name. But when the chance comes for her to escape viral infamy and imminent jail time through a community service placement at Atlas, a wildlife refuge for rescued monkeys, it seems like just the fresh start Jamie needs to finally get her life back on track—until it’s not.
Something sinister stirs in the palmetto woods, and secrets lurk among the three beguiling women who run the refuge and affectionately take Jamie under their wing for the summer. She hears the distant screams of monkeys each night, the staff forgo food in the name of sacrifice, and the land, which has long been abandoned by local farmers and resort developers, now proves to be dangerously, relentlessly untamed.
As Jamie ventures deeper into the offbeat world and rituals of Atlas, her summer is soon set to become material for an even stranger Florida headline than she ever could’ve imagined.
Publisher: Hanover Square Press/HarperCollins
Publication Date: July 5, 2022
ISBN: 9781335426895
Available for order: INDIEBOUND | AMAZON | B&N | TARGET
Deb Rogers loves character-driven stories that take readers to surprising places. She’s worked as an award-winning blogger, a statewide policymaker, and a nationally-recognized victim advocate. As a freelance writer and business development consultant she has produced many cool projects including the national expansion of the Listen to Your Mother Show storytelling series and a pop culture vertical for BlogHer. A Florida Woman herself, Deb has traveled from Pensacola to Key West improving the state’s response to violent crime, spent five years in the woods as a wilderness school teacher in Crescent City, and now happily lives and writes in St. Augustine because it offers the perfect blend of dazzling Atlantic Ocean seascapes, well-worn cobblestone streets, and wildly haunted buildings and palm hammocks.
2022 Debuts 