THE VIRGIN SUICIDES meets The Florida Project in this wildly original debut --- a coming-of-age story about the crucible of girlhood, from a writer of rare and startling talent.

We would not be born out of sweetness, we were born out of rage, we felt it in our bones.

In Falls Landing, Florida --- a place built of theme parks, swampy lakes and scorched bougainvillea flowers --- something sinister lurks in the deep. A gang of 13-year-old girls obsessively orbit around the local preacher's daughter, Sammy. She is mesmerizing, older and in love with Eddie. But suddenly, Sammy goes missing. Where is she? Watching from a distance, they edge ever closer to discovering a dark secret about their fame-hungry town and the cruel cost of a ticket out. What they see will continue to haunt them for the rest of their lives.

Through a darkly beautiful and brutally compelling lens, Dizz Tate captures the violence, horrors and manic joys of girlhood. BRUTES is a novel about the seemingly unbreakable bonds in the "we" of young friendship, and the moment it is broken forever.

Audiobook available, read by Eleanor McCormick