Sundown Girls

In the tradition of Jordan Peele and Tiffany Jackson's The Weight of Blood, a YA thriller about a Black teen whose fight for survival forces a small southern vacation town to face its dark history of racial violence.

When sixteen-year-old Naomi Ward and her family head to a secluded cabin in the Shenandoah Valley for summer vacation they don't know the small, mountain town of Sparksburg, Virginia has a dark and twisted past. But when they arrive, Naomi can't shake the feeling that something about Sparksburg just isn't right--and it smells god awful, but for some reason Naomi is the only who can smell the town's stench. When she learns Sparksburg had once been a Sundown Town--a town where Black people weren't allowed after sunset lest they be murdered--Naomi's unease starts to make sense.

As Naomi digs more into Sparksburg's violent origins, she finds herself haunted by the ghost of a girl, appearing nightly outside her window. Then she learns of two girls who've recently gone missing and suspects the past may still be present in Sparksburg and beneath the quaint façade of this tourist town is a palpable danger.

When Naomi decides to track the disappearance of the two girls herself, she becomes suspicious of a local man who has kindled fear in Naomi more than once. She soon learns he has a connection to one of the missing girls, and Naomi is certain he's responsible for the disappearances.

When no one believes her, Naomi takes matters into her own hands. But to save the missing girls, she'll have to finally face her own past trauma as a "missing girl" as she finds herself in a fight for survival.

Gripping and triumphant, L.S. Stratton tells an important and unforgettable story of racial reckoning inspired by historical events.

Author: L. S. Stratton
Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books
Published: 01/27/2026
Pages: 320
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.85lbs
Size: 8.40h x 5.90w x 1.20d
ISBN: 9798217004942
Audience: Young Adult


Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 10/27/2025
School Library Journal 10/31/2025 pg. 1
Kirkus Reviews 12/01/2025
Booklist 12/01/2025

About the Author
L.S. Stratton currently lives in Maryland with her husband, their daughter, and their tuxedo cat, where she is already musing about her next standalone YA thriller.