The Reading Warehouse

A traumatized girl lives with a family after escaping a cult in this debut YA suspense/thriller that was inspired by true events.

When fifteen-year-old Jules Mathis comes home from school to find a strange girl sitting in her kitchen, her psychiatrist mother reveals that Mae is one of her patients at the hospital and will be staying with their family for a few days. But soon Mae is wearing Jules's clothes, sleeping in her bedroom, edging her out of her position on the school paper, and flirting with Jules's crush. And Mae has no intention of leaving.

Then things get weird.

Jules walks in on a half-dressed Mae, startled to see: a pentagram carved into Mae's back. Jules pieces together clues and discovers that Mae is a survivor of the strange cult that's embedded in a nearby town.

And the cult will stop at nothing to get Mae back.

Find out what happens in Devil in Ohio by Daria Polatin.

Praise for Devil in Ohio:

Polatin weaves a thrilling and suspenseful story in her debut, inspired by true events. Jules Mathis' life is thrown into turmoil after her psychiatrist mother invites Mae--a patient, cult survivor, and troubled young girl with a pentagram carved into her back--to stay with their family. . . . Eager readers will keep turning pages to discover Mae's secrets and her connection to the Mathis family. --Booklist

Between the danger Jules's mother brings to the family and the cringe-worthy cult rituals described, this story is sometimes difficult to read--but sometimes the most important stories are the most challenging. --VOYA

Daria Polatin is an award-winning playwright and television writer, whose play Palmyra is about a young woman who joins ISIS. She holds an MFA from Columbia University.

She is a founding member of The Kilroys, an advocacy group for female and trans writers that promotes gender equality in the American theater, and is a writer for the Amazon TV series Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan, starring John Krasinski.

Daria is of Egyptian heritage and grew up traveling on five continents, loves hiking and inventing recipes, and lives in Los Angeles. Devil in Ohio is her debut novel.