Sweetgirl: A Novel

A blistering debut driven by the raw, whip-smart voice of Percy James, a fearless sixteen-year-old girl whose search for her missing mother leads to a life-and-death struggle in the harsh frozen landscape of the upper Midwest.

As a blizzard bears down, Percy James sets off to find her troubled mother, Carletta, who’s been unraveling for as long as her daughter can remember. Fearing Carletta is strung out on meth and won’t survive the storm, Percy heads for the cabin of her mother’s dealer, Shelton Potter, deep in the woods of northern Michigan.

But instead of Carletta, Percy discovers a crying baby girl alone in a freezing room. Percy knows she must save her—a split-second decision that commences a dangerous odyssey in which Percy must battle the elements and evade a small band of desperate criminals on her trail.

Filled with the sweeping sense of cultural and geographic isolation of its setting, Sweetgirl is an affecting exploration of courage, sacrifice, and the ties that bind, a taut and darkly humorous tour de force that is horrifying, tender, and hopeful.