Inland — Kat Rosenfield

There was a shadow in the water.

And when it moved beneath our boat, the sea opened its yawning blue mouth and swallowed my mother whole.

After nine years spent suffocating in the arid expanses of the Midwest, far from the sea where her mother drowned, Callie Morgan and her father are returning to the coast. And miraculously, Callie can finally breathe easily. No more sudden, clawing attacks and weeklong hospital stays.

But something is calling to her from the river behind their house and from the ocean miles away. Just as her life begins to feel like her own, and the potential for romance is blossoming, the intoxicating pull of the dark water seeps into her mind, filling her with doubt and revealing family secrets. Is it madness, or is there a voice, beckoning her to come to sea? To answer the call of the dark waves. To come home.