In the new Republic of Texas, guns are compulsory and nothing is forgiven. A fast-paced, page-turning, chilling coming-of-age thriller which looks unflinchingly at what the future could hold.

Fourteen-year-old Bluebonnet Andrews is on the run across the Republic of Texas. An accident with a gun killed her best friend but everyone in the town of Blessing thinks it was murder. Even her father - the town's drunken deputy - believes she did it. Now, she has no choice but to run. Because in Texas, murder is punishable by death.

There's no one to help her. Her father is incapable and her mother left the state on the last flight to America before the secession. Blue doesn't know where she is but she's determined to track her down. But first she has to get across the lawless Republic and over the wall that keeps everyone in.

On the road she meets Jet, a pregnant young woman of Latin American heritage. Jet is secretive about her past but she's just as determined as Blue to get out of Texas before she's caught and arrested. Together, the two form an unlikely kinship as they make their way past marauding motorcycle gangs, the ever watchful Texas Rangers, and armed strangers intent on abducting them - or worse.

When Blue and Jet finally reach the wall, will they be able to cross the border, or will they be shot down in cold blood like the thousands who have gone before them? Some things are worth dying for.

"Brilliant." - HEAT MAGAZINE

"A taut thriller... one of the books of the month." - THE INDEPENDENT

"The best in new science fiction." THE FINANCIAL TIMES

"Gripping." - THE GUARDIAN

Lori Ann Stephens is an award-winning author whose novels for children and adults include Novalee and the Spider Secret, Some Act of Vision, and Song of the Orange Moons. Her short stories have appeared in Glimmer Train Stories, The Chicago Tribune's "Nelson Algren Awards," and other literary presses. A lifelong Texan, she's seen the best and worst of her home state and has come to the conclusion that Texans are truly fabulist at heart.