The Hiding Girl

Twelve-year-old Emily Calby was a good girl from a religious family in rural Georgia. She loved softball, her little sister and looking up words to get her allowance. Then two men came and murdered her family. Somehow Emily escaped. Only the killers know she survived. On the run, surviving by wits and animal instinct, she makes an unlikely ally in Lucas Jackson, aka “Big EZ,” a ruthless ex-gang member who lost his own family to violence. From different worlds, the unusual pair develop a combative but unbreakable bond. Overwhelmed by guilt for failing her family, Emily persuades Lucas to teach her lethal skills in the name of “self-defense” before more tragedy launches her on a terrifying journey for justice all alone. She won’t let anything stop her—not cops or creeps, not even her own splintering mind. Through it all, Emily fights to hold onto hope and the girl she once knew, kept buried deep inside. Equal parts heartbreaking and heartwarming, The Hiding Girl is a testament to the boundless limits of love, sacrifice and the will to survive.