Never Coming Home

"Social media has never been this scary." —Kirkus

“A fast-paced thrill ride sure to delight fans of Agatha Christie and Karen McManus alike, Never Coming Home will keep you up reading all night long.” —Liz Lawson, author of The Lucky Ones, coauthor of The Agathas

“A perfect blend of mystery and social satire, Never Coming Home is your next literary obsession. Read it first for the fun, and then again and again for the deliciously murderous clues.” —Kathleen Glasgow, New York Times bestselling author of Girl in Pieces, coauthor of The Agathas

Auteur
Kate Williams has written for Seventeen, NYLON, Cosmopolitan, Bustle, Vans, Calvin Klein, Urban Outfitters, and many other brands and magazines. She is the author of The Babysitters Coven trilogy: The Babysitters Coven, For Better or Cursed, and Spells Like Teen Spirit. Kate lives in Kansas.

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Ten teen influencers arrive on Unknown Island expecting to find a tropical paradise, but instead they discover a deserted resort, poisonous snakes, and secrets worth killing for.

Résumé
The beach read you have been dying for! When ten of America's hottest teenage influencers are invited to an exclusive island resort, things are sure to get wild. But murder isn't what anyone expected. Will anyone survive?

Everyone knows Unknown Island—it’s the world’s most exclusive destination. Think white sand beaches, turquoise seas, and luxury accommodations. Plus, it’s invite only, no one over twenty-one allowed, and it’s absolutely free. Who wouldn’t want to go?

The mysterious resort launched with a viral marketing campaign, and now the whole world is watching as the mysterious resort opens its doors to the First Ten, the ten elite influencers specifically chosen to be the first to experience everything Unknown Island has to offer. You know them. There’s the gamer, the beauty blogger, the rich girl, the superstar, the junior politician, the environmentalist, the DJ, the CEO, the chef, and the athlete.

What they don’t know is that they weren’t invited to Unknown Island for their following—they were invited for their secrets. Everyone is hiding a deadly one, and it looks like someone’s decided it’s payback time. Unknown Island isn’t a vacation, it’s a trap. And it’s beginning to look like the First Ten—no matter how influential—are never coming home.

Échantillon de lecture

CHAPTER ONE

You’re not in Kansas anymore. It was the kind of one-liner that immediately made Justice Wilson write people off as boring and unoriginal, but now she couldn’t help but say it to herself. She was halfway around the world, and she liked it.

The tropics swarmed in as soon as the plane doors opened. Wet, humid air that turned walking into swimming, and palm trees whipping in the wind like they were trying to lure customers in to buy a used car. When she’d left Kansas City this morning, or last night, or whenever it was that she’d gotten on the first plane, the hue of the sky matched the concrete, the people were pale, and everything was cold. Now, she was surrounded by heat and a riot of color. Turquoise sky, emerald leaves, people with golden-brown skin, airline employees dressed in bright florals with flowers tucked behind their ears or pinned to their shirts. It was the kind of placed Justice had always dreamed of, but dang, was it hot.

She reached up and readjusted her scarf and then fanned the back of her neck. It was barely six a.m. here, but the sun was already blazing, and the people in front of her were moving like they were still asleep. Justice was too excited to be annoyed or tired. It had taken her three planes and almost twenty-four hours to get here. When she first saw the agenda, she’d shuddered at the carbon footprint of such a flight, but they had assured her that everything was offset. More than offset, even, which was just one of the reasons she knew this trip was going to be worth it. Honestly, she would have taken the trip even if there wasn’t a carbon offset. She needed this trip. This was the farthest from home she’d ever been, and that was what Justice wanted more than anything right now. To be far from home.

She had at least a few hours before her parents realized where she’d gone. By then, her father could threaten to ground her or take away her car, or demand she come home, and all for naught, because she’d be safely out of reach, on a private island where there were no flights in or out. It was easier to ask for forgiveness than permission, and when Justice returned after her week in paradise, even her uptight parents would see that traveling to Unknown Island was the best thing she could have done for her future.

The line was finally moving, and Justice made her way down the stairs and onto the runway, heat radiating off the pavement in waves. She stepped to the side, set her suitcase down, and pulled out the handle, then headed into the airport. She’d expected it to be air-conditioned, and was surprised when she walked through the doors and found the inside even wetter, and stickier, than outside. This realization made her smile, and laugh at herself a little. She could be such an American sometimes, thinking that everything should be comfortable and convenient, a Starbucks on every corner and a UPS truck on every street.

She was going to have to get used to this. If she was going to be an environmentalist like she wanted, she would be spending a lot of time in the third world. Wait, was this the third world? Probably not, because even with the lack of air-conditioning, the airport was pretty nice.

Justice forced herself to ignore her phone, which was tucked in the pocket of her carry-on bag. She’d kept it off all through her last layover, resisting the urge to check it while going through customs and passport control. Looking at her phone was exciting but also kind of scary.

She found the bathroom, peed, washed her hands, and soaked her red headscarf before retying it, which made her feel a little cooler. She’d managed to sleep a little on the flight, so she wasn’t too exhausted, but she could still tell that her body was confused by the time change and wasn’t sure if it wanted to eat, go for a run, or pass out. Back out of the bathroom, she wheeled her suitcase over to an empty chair in a waiting area, plopped down, took a big drink of water from her Hydro Flask, and then, only then, did she allow herself to check her phone.

The invitation had come a couple of months ago: an all-expenses-paid trip to Unknown Island, a high-profile, exclusive tropical resort. Rachel, the publicist Justice had talked to, had explained that Unknown Island represented a new kind of travel, one that let travelers avoid crowds and meet and mingle with curated strangers instead. Justice was invited to be part of the inaugural group, a tight selection of ten next-generation influencers. The tagline was grandiose and bold--The future of humanity meets the future of travel--and Justice hated to admit it, but she felt pretty honored to be included.

Unknown Island had picked her because they thought that she, especially, could help demonstrate how serious they were about sustainability and ecotourism. Justice had sent Rachel a list of content ideas, and the publicist had loved all of them, even telling her that they hoped this would be the start of a long-term partnership. Justice hoped so too, because that might be the exact kind of thing to get her off Harvard’s waitlist.

And then, of course, her parents said no.

“You’re seventeen,” he…