Albert has shared with EW the official cover, as well as an exclusive first excerpt.
Read on for more.The Night Countrypublishes Jan. 7, 2020, and isavailable for pre-order.
I craved normal, I craved routine.
Credit: Laura Etheredge
The only thing that made it all bearable was Sophia Snow.
Maybe bearable wasnt the right word.
She was the only thing that made itinteresting.
Flatiron Books
Unsettling was another way to put it.
Sophia was an ex-Story like me, another Hinterland reject.
Blue eyes and a knotty ballerina build and black hair that moved against itself like water weeds.
There was this night when we were down by the water.
The only ones who could, Sophia among them, were broken.
He was one of the main ones, decently hot, with two lines shaved through his eyebrow.
That meant something, I thought, but I could never remember what.
We sat for a minute in silence, but that couldnt last.
You know, I watch you sometimes.
That didnt deserve a response, so I said nothing.
Youre quiet, but I like that.
Youve got a lot of soul, right?
Just because I hadnt been kissed yet didnt mean I hadnt heard some lines.
What makes you think that?
Youre so little, he said cryptically.
Hed clearly come to the end of his material.
But I can just tell, youve really got a lot ofsoul.
To be honest, I dont know if Ive even got a soul.
I said it to the skyline.
If a soul is what makes you human, then I probably dont.
Unless a soul is something you cangrow, like, after the fact.
And I dont think it is.
Just to explain why your pickup lines not working on me.
I thought he might stand up and walk away, or get confused and call me a bitch.
Instead, he smiled.
God, you are so fuckin weird, he said.
Then he kissed me.
It wasnt that simple.
First I stiffened, then I ducked my head and turned away.
Finally I scrambled back and tried to stand, because he wasnt taking my high-beam hint.
Hold on, hold on, he said, laughing.
I wasnt scared exactly, but I couldnt get away from him, either.
His mouth tasted like Coke and garlic, and it was gummy with dead skin.
The Hinterland in me: it had dried up and drained, it was nearly gone.
Maybe it lived where my soul wouldve lodged, if Id been truly human.
Finally she pressed a dirty Ked to his neck.
Youre gonna die before youre thirty, she said, blowing smoke into his eyes.
She didnt say it meanly, just matter of fact.
Quick, at least.
If that makes it better.
the boy kept saying, his face stained with fear.
What are you talking about?
Why would you say that to me?
She didnt answer, just watched them scramble and take off, yelling ugly stuff over their shoulders.
When they were gone, she turned to me.
Was that asshole your first kiss?
At least in this version of my life.
It was too much to get into, so I just nodded.
She kneeled next to me, put her hands on my shoulders, and pressed her mouth to mine.
Like when and how they were going to die.
There, she said, pulling back.
That was your first kiss.
Thats what I like to think of when I think of Sophia Snow.
That small, sympathetic proof that not everything the Hinterlanders did was meant to cause damage.
But they didnt belong in this world, and that was the truth.
The cracks they made were small, but small cracks can bring a city down.
And if they didnt belong here, I didnt either.
We were predators set loose in a world not made to withstand us.
Until the summer we became prey.
