{"product_id":"we-can-only-save-ourselves-a-novel","title":"We Can Only Save Ourselves: A Novel","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"Alison Wisdom's addictive, down-the-rabbit-hole debut reads like \u003cem\u003eThe Girls\u003c\/em\u003e by way of \u003cem\u003eThe Virgin Suicides\u003c\/em\u003e, with an extra dash of Cheever's unsettling suburbia. The result is sinister and surprising: a novel I couldn't put down, and one that I kept thinking about long after I'd reached its unexpected, chilling end.\" —Emily Temple, author of \u003cem\u003eThe Lightness\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eOne of \u003cem\u003eNewsweek,\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e Bustle, and LitHub's Most Anticipated Books and \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGoodreads' \"Debut Novels to Discover in 2021,\" \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eWe Can Only Save Ourselves\u003c\/em\u003e is the story of one\u003cp\u003eteenage girl’s unlikely indoctrination and the reverberations in the tight-knit\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ecommunity she leaves behind.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAlice Lange’s neighbors are proud to know her—a high-achieving\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003estudent, cheerleader, and all-around good citizen, she’s a perfect emblem of\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003etheir sunny neighborhood. The night before she’s expected to\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ebe crowned Homecoming Queen, though, she commits an act of vandalism, then\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003edisappears, following a magnetic stranger named Wesley to a bungalow in another\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003epart of the state. There, he promises, Alice can be her true self, shedding the\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eshackles of conformity.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAt the bungalow, however, she learns\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ethat four other young women seeking enlightenment and adventure have already\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003efollowed him there. Her new lifestyle is intoxicating at first, but as Wesley’s\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003edemands on all of them increase, the house becomes a pressure cooker—until one\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eday they reach the point of no return.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBack home, the story of Alice’s\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003edisappearance and radicalization is framed by the first-person plural chorus of\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ethe mothers who knew her before, who worry about her, but also resent the tear\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eshe made in the fabric of their perfect world, one that exposes the question: Isn’t\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003esuburbia a kind of cult unto itself?\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCombining the sharp social\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ecritique of Celeste Ng’s \u003cem\u003eLittle Fires Everywhere \u003c\/em\u003ewith the elegiac beauty\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eof Emma Cline’s \u003cem\u003eThe Girls\u003c\/em\u003e, this is a fierce literary debut from a writer\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eto watch.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Alison Wisdom","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":55252280508707,"sku":"9780063048171","price":21.59,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Trade Paperback","offer_id":55252280541475,"sku":"9780062996145","price":13.59,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0930\/2258\/5123\/files\/9780062996145.jpg?v=1781805419","url":"https:\/\/epicreads.com\/products\/we-can-only-save-ourselves-a-novel","provider":"Epic Reads","version":"1.0","type":"link"}