Teenagers are sent out into the wilderness for a survival-of-the-fittest culling in this exhilarating post-apocalyptic romance perfect for fans of The Grace Year and Silver Elite.

No one is stronger than the people who survived the end of the world. No one except their children.

Isla has come of age in Emery, a post-apocalyptic Spartan society where strength is valued above all else. Spending energy on anything but the community's continued survival is strictly forbidden. Unfortunately for Isla, she's happier hiding in a secret fall-out shelter full of books from the before-times than she is on the sparring field. But when she turns eighteen, she will be sent out into the wilderness with her peers to light the yearly signal fires atop mountains surrounding their makeshift village. The hope is that there are other survivors somewhere out there to join forces and pool resources. But to do so, they must brave the mysterious threats beyond the wall, rumored "monsters."

Isla is all but certain that she will be among those who don't return from the trial...until a boy named Atlas, the consummate Emery warrior and her trial group leader, catches Isla with a contraband book. Atlas believes Isla's knowledge of before-times may be the key to their survival in the wild, where danger lurks in every shadow. But when Isla uncovers a deadly secret, she's no longer sure she can trust the community she came from...or the boy she's started to fall for. Suddenly Isla doesn't know who-or what-she's fighting for, or if she was ever meant to return in the first place.