A Misfortune of Lake Monsters Nicole M. Wolverton 9780744309584

Lemon Ziegler wants to escape the rural town of Devil's Elbow and go to college-but that's impossible now that she's expected to impersonate a lake monster for the rest of her life. Her family has been secretly keeping the tradition of Old Lucy, the famed monster of Lake Lokakoma, alive for generations by staging sightings to keep tourists coming. Lemon can't disappoint her grandparents . . . or tell her secret to her friends, including Troy Ramirez, who has been secretly in love with Lemon for years, afraid to tell her lest he ruin their friendship. When a real lake monster starts eating people, Lemon spills the secret to her best friends, and they must figure out how to stop the monster before it kills half the town.

For readers who enjoy Harrow Lake by Kat Ellis, House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland, Dark and Shallow Lies by Ginny Myers Sain, and The Lake House by Sarah Beth Durst.

Nicole M. Wolverton is the author of The Trajectory of Dreams, an adult psychological thriller (Bitingduck Press), and editor of Bodies Full of Burning, an anthology of menopause-themed short horror fiction (Sliced Up Press), with dozens of short stories and creative nonfiction works published in literary magazines, anthologies, and podcasts, including the Saturday Evening Post and the Nighty Night with Rabia Chaudry podcast. She grew up in rural Pennsylvania, but now calls Philadelphia her home. Her YA horror novel A Misfortune of Lake Monsters will be released from CamCat Books in Fall 2024.