In this twisted Lauren Oliver-meets-A.S. King debut, Julian has just eight more lives to burn in order to uncover a brutal secret.

In an alternate world startlingly close to our own, humans have nine lives—and they can’t wait to use them up.

The government has death incentives aimed at controlling overpopulation. As you shed lives, you shed your awkward phases: one death is equal to one physical and mental upgrade.

Julian’s friends are obsessed with the idea of burning, but Julian is determined to stay on his first life for as long as he can. His mother burned too fast and inflicted a debilitating rebirth sickness on herself.

Julian realizes that he’s going to have to burn at some point—especially when he becomes a target for Nicholas, the manipulative leader of the Burners, the school’s suicide club. And when Julian eventually succumbs, he uncovers suspicious gaps in the rebirth system that may explain exactly why his mother went so far down the rabbit hole years ago.

Along with a group of student dissenters, Julian sets out to find answers and is soon on the verge of exposing the greatest conspiracy ever unleashed on the world.

Rebellion Against the System: In a world where dying is cool, Julian is determined to do the one thing that makes him a pariah: stay alive.
Morally Complex Characters: When Julian becomes a target for the charismatic and manipulative Nicholas, leader of the death-obsessed Burners, he discovers that a magnetic personality can hide the darkest of intentions.
A Twisty Sci-Fi Thriller: What starts as an act of survival becomes a desperate search for the truth behind his mother’s tragic past and the suspicious gaps in the world’s rebirth system.
High-Stakes Coming of Age: To uncover the truth, Julian must burn the one thing he swore to protect—his life—and become the person he never wanted to be.

Nine

Nine