On Sale: Oct 13, 2026
Page Count: 288 pages
Publisher: Union Square & Co.
ISBN-13: 9781454957089

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In the desert, water is life. On the river, it’s murder. It’s the late 1990s and seventeen year old Christian is content with his summer plans to work at Taco Bell and take care of his mother when he gets a phone call from his best friend that will change his life forever. James is offering to fly Christian to Arizona for a whitewater rafting trip and one last epic summer before their senior year. James knows Christian is terrified of water ever since he almost drowned as a kid, but he’s persuasive and Christian relents.
Out in the Salt River Canyon, the heat is scorching, and so is James’s pretty girlfriend, Freya. However, something seems off between the couple as bitter words fly. When James decides to join his other friends in the second raft, it’s just Christian and Freya forced to face the rapids together. Disaster strikes when Freya falls into the river, and Christian is frozen with fear.
One year later, Christian is still wracked with guilt and plagued by nightmares of the day Freya died. Now, he’s a freshman at Arizona State University, and he thinks he sees Freya in one of his classes. It can’t be her. Freya is dead after all. They found her body. Didn’t they? Christian follows Madison, the girl who looks like Freya, everywhere. He was certain Freya had died that day, but now he’s certain Madison is Freya. Will he ever find out what’s real? Or will his obsession be his downfall?
Award-winning author Dusti Bowling masterfully crafts a wild ride on Arizona’s Salt River Canyon in this thriller inspired by Hitchcock’s Vertigo that’s perfect for fans of Holly Jackson and Karen M. McManus.

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Dusti Bowling is the award-winning, bestselling author of Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus, Momentous Events in the Life of a Cactus, The Beat I Drum, 24 Hours in Nowhere, The Canyon's Edge, Across the Desert, Dust, and the Aven Green chapter book series.
Dusti's books have won the Reading the West Award, the Sakura Medal, a Golden Kite Honor, the William Allen White Children's Book Award, and have been nominated for over fifty state awards. Her books are Junior Library Guild Selections and have been named best books of the year by the Chicago Public Library, Kirkus, Bank Street College of Education, A Mighty Girl, Shelf Awareness, and many more.
Dusti currently lives in Eagar, Arizona with her husband, three daughters, and a bunch of farm animals.
Follow her on X at @DustiBowling.

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Dusti Bowling

About the Author

Dusti Bowling is the award-winning, bestselling author of Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus, Momentous Events in the Life of a Cactus, The Beat I Drum, 24 Hours in Nowhere, The Canyon’s Edge, Across the Desert, Dust, and the Aven Green chapter book series.

Dusti’s books have won the Reading the West Award, the Sakura Medal, a Golden Kite Honor, the William Allen White Children’s Book Award, and have been nominated for over fifty state awards. Her books are Junior Library Guild Selections and have been named best books of the year by the Chicago Public Library, Kirkus, Bank Street College of Education, A Mighty Girl, Shelf Awareness, and many more.

Dusti currently lives in Eagar, Arizona with her husband, three daughters, and a bunch of farm animals.

Follow her on X at @DustiBowling.

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The Drowning Game

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