The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly

   





Chapter 1

I am a blood-soaked girl.

Before me, a body. Pulped. My boots drenched with his blood. I search out his eyes, but they re gone, hidden away behind pale lids.

My breath comes hard and white in the freezing air. Inside each breath is the understanding that this is how it feels, controlling someone, bending their body to your will.

I wonder if this is how the Prophet felt the moment he ordered my hands ripped from me.

Above, a car races across the bridge with a metal shudder. Fingernail-sized flakes of snow fall through the yellow haze of streetlights, and a few cold stars blink in a dark sky. I want to hold my hand flat to catch the snowflakes like I used to when I was little. But, I remind myself, my hands are gone, and I m not five anymore. The girl I used to be could almost be dead.

I hunker beside a snowbank, watching the red on the ground slowly ice over. I feel suddenly cold. Colder than even the outside air. Colder than I ve ever been in my life.





Chapter 2

When the police arrive they are blurry white shapes, like ghosts, stuffed inside tight blue uniforms. My eyes can t follow their features. One moment, I grasp an eye, a nose, but it slips away just as quickly and all I sense are their voices, scribbling over the light of the new morning. The ruined mess of the boy s body is shoved inside an ambulance, and it screams down the street.

The cops try handcuffing me around my stumps, but the metal slides off. I bite my lip against the cold steel grating over my newborn pink skin.

Do we even need to cuff her? one cop mutters.

Look at what she did, the other insists. You saw the kid, looked like he d been run over.

But, just look at her.

Look at me. My arms are crossed over my stomach and, at the end of the arms, an absence of hands, of fingers, of fists, of

Stephanie Oakes lives in Spokane, Washington, and works as a library media teacher in a combined middle and elementary school. She has an MFA in poetry from Eastern Washington University. The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly is her debut novel.

Now a Morris Award Honor Book, Golden Kite Honor Book, Booklist Editors' Choice, New York Public Library Best Book for Teens, Georgia Peach Book Award Nominee and a Texas TAYSHAS Top Ten Book!

* "In beautiful and harrowing prose, Stephanie Oakes debut peels back the veneer of fairytales to reveal their inherent darkness." Booklist, STARRED REVIEW

* "Suspense, dread, and hope intermingle in Oakes s charged, page-turning debut." Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW

* "A truly thought-provoking and spectacular story. VOYA, Perfect 10/STARRED REVIEW

"The Scared Lies of Minnow Bly is a psychological thriller, a commentary on our justice system, and a must read book." Hypable

"A page-turner in the truest form of the phrase." Bustle

"A profoundly thoughtful and meaningful read...if you care about girls, you should read it. And since everyone should care about girls, everyone should read it." Teen Librarian Toolbox

"The unravelling of the mystery and the timing of the revelations is masterful, culminating in an explosively rewarding ending. Unflinching, unrelenting and visceral, this one has undeniable adult crossover appeal." The Globe and Mail

"Based on Grimm s fairy tale, The Handless Maiden, the powerful, fluent writing; engrossing and well-layered mystery; compelling characters; and provocative ideas about family, faith, honesty, loyalty, and friendship are engaging....Ellen Hopkins devotees and fans of The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams will seek this one out." School Library Journal