Seventeen-year-old Cardinal has escaped the virus that ravaged his town, leaving its victims alive but without their memories. He chooses to remain in the quarantined zone, caring for a group of orphaned kids in a mountain camp with the help of the former brutal school bully, now transformed by the virus into his best friend. But then a strong-willed and mysterious young woman appears, and the closed-off world Cardinal has created begins to crumble.

A thrilling, fast-paced work of speculative fiction for teens, from a bestselling author, Black River Falls is an unforgettable story about survival, identity, and family.

He remembers the world before the virus. They don’t. What happens when protecting them means trusting a girl with no past?

• Enemies to Friends: Cardinal’s only ally is the former school bully, a boy whose memory loss has transformed him from a brutal tormentor into a loyal best friend.
• High-Stakes Survival: In a quarantined mountain camp, Cardinal must protect a group of orphaned kids from the dangers of a collapsed world and the new threat that just walked into their lives.
• A World Without Memory: Explore a gripping speculative world where a virus has wiped society’s slate clean, leaving survivors to redefine who they are.
• A Fight for Identity: When a mysterious girl arrives with secrets of her own, Cardinal must question everything he knows about loyalty, survival, and the family he’s fought so hard to build.