They Will Not Save Us

By Marie Arnold

The Forgotten Girl meets Hide and Seeker in this terrifying MG horror that returns the Zombie to its homeland, the island nation of Haiti.

Lena has always been a troublemaker. Descended from a long line of Mambos, priestesses of the Voodoo religion, she knows a thing or two about creating havoc -- and getting out of it. There's nothing she can't get herself and her friends out of, even when she causes most of the predicaments they find themselves in. But there are things even she can't fix. She can't bring her father back from the dead, can't make her mother happy again, and can't forgive the gods for taking her father away.

When a mysterious man arrives in her little Haitian village, taking up residence in the giant house at the outskirts, she's more curious than anyone. Anything helps to keep her mind away from her father. And the mysterious man's dinner party is just the thing to keep her mind at ease, and learn more about why he's on the island.

But then strange things start to happen. People stare at her with their eyes glazed over. They walk as if they're being controlled -- as if they were zombies... And they're all after her.

As her village descends into chaos, Lena must fight to save what community she has left, solve the mystery of what's truly happening, and escape the horde of zombies before they catch her. It may take everything, even the gods, to get out of this alive.

They Will Not Save Us returns the zombie genre to its origin in Haiti, and explores the genuine horrors of slavery, loss, and colonization in a bone-chilling way.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1546171088
• ISBN13: 9781546171089
• Release Date: October 2026
• Publisher: Scholastic Press
• Length: 256 Pages
• Age Range: 9 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Grades 4 to 7