The Forest Demands Its Due

Ages 14 And Up, Grades 9 And Up

A Lesson in Vengeance meets The Taking of Jake Livingston in this thrilling, page-turning YA horror/fantasy set in dark academia about a queer Black teen who discovers the sinister, deadly history of his boarding school and the corrupt powers behind it all.

Regent Academy has a long and storied history in Winslow, Vermont, as does the forest that surrounds it. The school is known for molding teens into leaders, but its history is far more nefarious than any outsider could begin to suspect.  Seventeen-year-old Douglas Jones wants nothing to do with Regent's king-making; he’s just trying to survive. But then a student is murdered and, for some reason, by the next day no one remembers him having ever existed, except for Douglas and the groundskeeper's son, Everett Everley. In his determination to uncover the truth, Douglas awakens a horror hidden within the forest, unearthing secrets that have been buried for centuries. A vengeful creature wants blood as payment for a debt more than three hundred years in the making—or it will swallow all of Winslow in darkness.And for the first time in his life, Douglas might have a chance to grasp the one thing he’s always felt was missing: power. But if he’s not careful, he will find out that power has a tendency to corrupt absolutely everything.

About the Author

Kosoko Jackson is the author of YA novels championing holistic representation of Black queer youth across genres, including Yesterday Is History and Survive the Dome. He also writes adult romance and works as a digital media specialist focusing on digital storytelling and email, social, and SMS marketing. You can visit his website at kosokojackson.com.