Clear Water

NAMED A BEST BOOK OF FALL BY THE BOSTON GLOBE, CRIMEREADS, THE OC REGISTER, AND MORE! 

A BARNES AND NOBLE BEST HORROR BOOK OF 2026!

"Mesmerizing, eerie and strange like the snowy night-forests within its pages, Clear Water is a gorgeous novel of loss and rebirth, and of what hides beneath the surface." --Charlotte McConaghy, award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of Wild Dark Shore

An atmospheric, mesmerizing novel following one woman's return to her small town, and the secrets of its haunted past, perfect for fans of Liz Moore and Samantha Schweblin

Alma Figueroa is the first person to see a girl in white. Later, more people will claim to have seen the girls: in the snow, in the woods, in the middle of roads. The girls don't speak, and they don't match any of the files for the young women who have been disappearing from Brewer, Wisconsin, for years. Rumors quickly spread that these girls aren't entirely real, that they are dangerous. But Alma knows what she saw, and she begins investigating.

Back in high school, Alma's sister, Kayla, was a girl who disappeared, into an addiction that claimed her life. After that, Alma vowed she would never return to Brewer, but the town has always pulled her back. She fell in love with her husband here, until the darkness of their shared history overwhelmed them. As Alma's investigation deepens, she begins to uncover secrets the community has been ignoring for too long. These secrets might be able to explain Kayla's death and Alma's heartbreak--if Alma can figure out what the girls are trying to tell her in time.

Shatteringly beautiful and bracing, raw with grief and love, Clear Water is the story of a woman undone, who is still determined to avenge her losses. Seamlessly interweaving mystery, noir, myth, and horror, this singular novel is a tour de force and a warning: the lost girls of Brewer will not be forgotten.

Gabrielle Lucille Fuentes is the author of The Sleeping World and Are We Ever Our Own. She has received fellowships from Hedgebrook, Willapa Bay Artists in Residency, Yaddo, the Millay Colony, Lighthouse Works, and the Blue Mountain Center. She holds a BA from Brown University, an MFA from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and a PhD from the University of Georgia. She is an associate professor at the University of Maryland. She lives in Maryland with her family.