About This Book

Cut meets Hatchet in this lacerating debut about girls, knives, and redemption.

The Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness Area stretches across two million acres in northern Idaho. In its heart sits the Alice Marshall School, where fifty teenage girls come to escape their histories and themselves.

Lida Wallace has tried to negate herself in every way possible. At Alice Marshall, she meets Elsa Boone, a fierce native Idahoan; Jules, who seems too healthy to belong at the school; and Gia Longchamps, whose glamour entrances the entire camp. As the girls prepare for a wilderness trek, Lida is both thrilled and terrified to be chosen as Gia's friend. But everyone has their secrets — their "things" that they try to protect — and when those come out, the knives do as well.

Praise for The Girls of No Return

* “This debut is richly rewarding and will linger for its subtle examination of human behavior and emotions—love, trust, guilt and forgiveness. A smashing debut.” — Kirkus Reviews, starred review

* “Secrets and lies, betrayal and trust, friends and enemies—there are weighty themes at the heart of this bold, compelling debut novel. …This psychological mind-bender is raw, gripping, and deftly rolled out by a writer-to-watch.”  — Booklist, starred review

“Saldin presents the complex, layered terrain of relationships that develop among teens who share cabins and cigarettes and bathhouse duty but often know only the bare minimum about one another’s former lives.”  — The Horn Book