Two facts about Lake Los Angeles: one, there’s no lake, and, two, it’s nowhere near Los Angeles. That’s where Kiara ends up after her parents’ divorce—in the middle of nowhere—a land of Joshua trees, dust devils, and tumbleweeds.

Kiara’s mom calls it affordable housing. Kiara calls it hell.

At a one-room schoolhouse alongside the dry lakebed, she meets Cole, a brilliant green-eyed boy, the first spark of joy in the vast emptiness of the Mojave Desert—a place without sidewalks or streetlights. He’s her friend, but could he be more?

Kiara feels forgotten and alone as she parents herself and her younger brother. Growing up in the 1980s and 90s, she loathes the world she’s thrown into, a maze of double-crossing girls, mixed messages from guys, friends laden with trauma, and a single mom who always slams her door and cries.

When combat-boot wearing Carolyn shows up on the scene, Kiara doesn’t know what to think. Who can she trust if she can’t even trust herself?

There is a life beyond the desert. In her heart, she knows it.

Can she dare to dream a way out?