Riyati Ripple by Kai Zeal

Every act of defiance steers you into the person you were always been meant to become. After Nimaka’s death and the older selves returning to their own time, Kylie ran from all she’d known and grown up with at North Opal Pines, but she soon learns she can’t run far or fast enough. She thought she could leave it all behind: go back to being a normal high school student, make new friends, keep her grades up and her mother happy. But Nimaka’s death has only rallied the two other, and now they’ve stalked Kylie to her new school. Even worse, they have a mysterious new leader who no longer seeks to just kill Kylie but all those she knows and loves…. and the body count is rising. Kylie can’t get by on “just surviving” anymore: to protect herself — let alone those around her — she must become as strong and cunning as Siani was, or she’ll not only become trapped in the incarnation cycle but everyone she’s ever known and loved will die with her. Riyati Ripple is the third book in a new adult/adult contemporary, low dark fantasy series that seeks to explore themes of identity, legacy, generational trauma, and finding your own path in life. Riyati is set in the modern day fictional Southern US town of Opal Pines and includes multiple first person perspectives with characters across a range of queer, neurodiverse, and socioeconomic statuses.

Adult • Diversity Representation/LGBTQ+/Own Voices • Contemporary Fiction • Fantasy/Dark • Diversity Representation/Neurodiversity/Own Voices

Content Warning: Alcoholism, blood, body horror, bullying, child abuse, classism, death, decapitation, emotional abuse, emotional manipulation, extreme violence, fear of abandonment, gaslighting, gore, homelessness, human experimentation, kidnapping, misogyny, mass murder, parental neglect, physical abuse, poverty, school attack, self-harm, stalking, strong adult language, substance abuse, suicidal ideation, torture, trauma-induced nightmares, trauma-based responses, and victim blaming