The students of LA’s elite Warner Prep can’t wait for their Senior Excursion—five days of Instagrammable adventure in one of the world’s most exclusive locations. This is not your average field trip. Which is why eight students can’t believe their bad luck when they end up on a digital detox in an isolated Colorado ski chalet. Their epic trip is panning out to be an epic bore . . . until their classmates start dropping in a series of disturbing deaths. The message is clear: this trip is no accident.

Four girls are forced to spend the summer together when their moms reunite at their childhood lake house. Always-sunny Skyler is a softball star who’s hiding how bad her joint pain has gotten. Always-stormy Scarlett, Skyler’s twin, would much rather be hanging out with her boyfriend back home. Amelia Grace just wants to escape her conservative stepdad after he caught her kissing a girl. And homeschooled social-media star Ellie is just excited at the chance to make some friends IRL.

Seventeen-year-old Nell knows two things for sure—she’s never going to get out of her rural, dead-end hometown of Clawson, NY and her best friend Stevie B and longtime boyfriend Cole are never going to leave her. That is until Charlotte, a new girl, arrives at their school and their lopsided friend triangle is turned on its axis. While Nell and Stevie B are certain that Charlotte isn’t who she says she is, Cole is caught fully in her thrall. When Nell and Stevie B finally confront Cole and Charlotte, they learn the impossible—Charlotte is actually from the future.

Tangleroot was built by one of Noni’s ancestors, an enslaved man named Cuffee Fortune—who Dr. Castine believes was also the original founder of Stonepost College, and that the school was originally formed for Black students. Dr. Castine spends much of her time trying to piece together enough undeniable truth in order to change the name of the school in Cuffee’s honor—and to force the university to reckon with its own racist past.

Nabik, a soldier, owes his loyalty to his elder brother Fydir, who lifted him and their sister, Drakne, from poverty. But when Fydir orders him to quell unrest among the city’s beastfolk, the magic Nabik had long buried begins to stir. A wintery voice urges Nabik to desert his post—and his brother’s watchful eye—to journey north into Kolznechia, a frozen, enchanted kingdom ruled by the mercurial Rat King. His power may hold the key to breaking an ancient curse and ending the Rat King’s terrible reign.