What would you do if the past showed up on your doorstep?
A woman who grew up in a cult must decide if she can trust the stranger claiming to have answers to the dark mysteries of her childhood in this irresistible thriller.
โI tore through this book and was genuinely shocked by its ending!โโAna Reyes, New York Times bestselling author of The House in the Pines
For decades, the whereabouts of The Fifteen has been an unsolved mystery. All the members of this reclusive commune outside Philadelphia vanished twenty years ago, except for one: a twelve-year-old girl found wandering alone on the side of the road.
In the years since that morning, Lee Burton has tried to put the pain of her past behind her, building a new identity for herself with a doting husband and seven-month-old daughter, Lucy. But motherhood is proving a bigger challenge than she anticipated. She doesnโt want to let Lucy out of her sight even for a moment. She canโt return to work. Sheโs not sleeping, and she has started spiraling into paranoia.
Then a stranger shows up on her doorstep, offering answers to all of Leeโs questions about her pastโif Lee could only trust that this woman is who she says she is. Can Lee keep her safe, stable life? Or will new revelations about โthe cult that went missingโ shatter everything? In The Ascent, Allison Buccola has crafted a nerve-rattling thriller about motherhood, identity, and the truths we think we know about our families.