With a title borrowed from Edgar Allan Poe’s haunting poem Annabel Lee, you can expect plenty of creepy, creative imagery and unexpected twists from Rachel Vincent’s The Stars Never Rise.

What will Nina have to sacrifice to save her sister? But when Finn and his gang of outlaws tell her what they really are, she wonders if she’s just traded one problem for another. Nina is desperate for a solution, and when she meets a young man who promises her a way out of the mess, she takes it. Teen motherhood is a grievous sin under Church laws, and Mellie’s baby would die without a soul donor. Her plan goes astray when Mellie drops a bombshell secret the day of her school physical – she’s pregnant.

Nina would do anything for Mellie, even join the Church, forbidden from marriage but keeping her sister free from hunger. Her sister, Melanie, is only book smart, and her mom sleeps all day and yells the rest of the time. Nina’s never seen a demon she’s more worried about keeping food on the table. Its influential leaders rant about the dangers of demons, and it’s only an elite group of exorcists that stop hordes of the evil creatures from feeding on the entire population’s souls. She needs Finn and his group of rogue friends just as much as they need her.In sixteen-year-old Nina Kane’s world, the Church is not a place of worship, but rather a dictatorial government. Wanted by the Church and hunted by dark forces, Nina knows she can't survive on her own. But what kind of exorcist wears a hoodie? To keep them both alive, Nina will need to trust Finn, a fugitive with deep green eyes who has already saved her life once and who might just be an exorcist. And Mellie's sin has put her in serious trouble. Because in New Temperance, sins are prosecuted as crimes by the brutal Church and its army of black-robed exorcists. When Nina discovers that Mellie is keeping a secret that threatens their very existence, she'll do anything to protect her. They gave up on their deadbeat mom a long time ago. Watching over her younger sister, Mellie, and scraping together food and money are all that matters. Her town's population has been decimated by soul-consuming demons, and souls are in short supply. Sixteen-year-old Nina Kane should be worrying about her immortal soul, but she's too busy trying to actually survive.

The stars never rise