He was denied his childhood. Hers was slipping away. A deck of cards brought them together. When Sam meets Felicity-his boss's eleven-year-old daughter-he recognizes what everyone else has missed. Beneath the nonstop chatter and the endless questions is a bright, lonely kid the whole world has quietly given up on. Even her own parents.
Sam knows that feeling, so he does what none of the adults in her life will. He looks out for her. They bond over Mystic Forest, a whimsical trading card game that gives them both something they've been missing. A chance to feel like kids again.
But outside their games, Sam's obsession with a problem at work could cost him his job. He stumbles onto a malfunction that shouldn't be possible, and he can't let it go. Then a new danger surfaces, closer to home. Felicity's home. Her family is falling apart, and she's the one who'll suffer. No one has her back.
"I wish you were my dad."
Sam has spent a lifetime learning to look away. Not this time.
The heart of Remarkably Bright Creatures meets the domestic suspense of Defending Jacob.
For readers of A Man Called Ove, The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, and Before the Fall.