Fans of queer dark academia, this is your time! Come to H&H Books for the pub day launch of SECRETS OF THE BLUE HAND GIRLS, from debut author Rowana Miller.
On Tuesday, October 7 at 7 PM, Rowana will be in conversation with Nova Ren Suma, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of THE WALLS AROUND US, and, most recently, WAKE THE WILD CREATURES.
SECRETS OF THE BLUE HAND GIRLS and WAKE THE WILD CREATURES are available on H&H's ecommerce site and will be available in-store, too.
Rowana and Nova will conclude their conversation with a brief Q&A and book signing.
Registration is free and highly encouraged!
About SECRETS OF THE BLUE HAND GIRLS:
When the first letter appears in Kay Anderson's locker, it carries one instruction: dye your hand blue.
She definitely shouldn't do it. Kay doesn't have time for secret societies: as a scholarship student at up-and-coming Manhattan prep school Davison High, her job is to work hard, get into Northwestern, and ignore both her wealthy classmates' fun-filled Instagram stories and Zola Wolfe, the enigmatic redhead in Kay’s Calculus class.
Still, Kay's intrigued, so she stains her palms with ink to join the mysterious Blue Hand Girls, sharing an unspoken thrill with the classmates who do the same. More letters show up, assigning risky initiation tasks, and Kay realizes the group is set on exposing the shady business that Davison's founders would rather keep hidden.
But the anonymous instructions also demand the girls reveal their own secrets, bonding them all too close to abandon the society. Soon, Kay doesn't know who's more dangerous: the powerful people who run her school, or the Blue Hand Girls themselves.
About WAKE THE WILD CREATURES:
Three years ago, Talia lived happily in the ruins of the Neves, a once-grand hotel in the wilds of the Catskill Mountains, with her mother Pola and their community of like-minded women. Some came to the Neves to escape cruel men, others to hide from the law, but all found safety and connection in their haven high above civilization, cloaked by a mysterious mist that kept intruders away. But as their numbers grew, complications followed, and everything came crashing down. Uniformed men arrested Pola, calling her a murderer and a fugitive.
Now sixteen, Talia has been forced to live with family she barely knows and fit into a world scarred by misogyny, capitalism, disconnection from nature—everything the women of the Neves stood against. She has one goal: to return to the Neves. But as Talia awaits a signal from her mother, questions arise. Who betrayed her community, and what is she avoiding about her own role in its collapse? Is it truly magic that keeps the hotel so hidden? And what does it mean to embrace being her mother's daughter?
About the Authors:
Rowana Miller, author of SECRETS OF THE BLUE HAND GIRLS, is the founder of Philadelphia-based creative writing education nonprofit Cosmic Writers. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania in 2022, she moved back to her hometown of New York City, where she lives with her wife, Penelope, and two cats, Alice and Jabberwocky. Rowana writes about riddles, goblins, secrets, strange girls, and mischief. Instagram: @r0wanamiller
Nova Ren Suma is the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling THE WALLS AROUND US and A ROOM AWAY FROM THE WOLVES, which were both finalists for the Edgar Award. She has an MFA in fiction from Columbia University and has taught creative writing at the University of Pennsylvania and Vermont College of Fine Arts. Originally from the Hudson Valley, she spent most of her adult life in New York City, and now lives in Philadelphia. Her new novel, WAKE THE WILD CREATURES, is out now from Little, Brown. Instagram: @novaren