A Vault of Sins by Sarah Harian
(Chaos Theory #2)
Published by: Intermix (Penguin)
Publication date: September 16, 2014
Genres: New Adult, Thriller
(Chaos Theory #2)
Published by: Intermix (Penguin)
Publication date: September 16, 2014
Genres: New Adult, Thriller
Synopsis:
In her stunning New Adult debut, The Wicked We Have Done, Sarah Harian introduced readers to the Compass Room: a twisted experimental jail where the guilty and the innocent suffer alike. But breaking out was only the beginning…
Even though she’s escaped, twenty-two-year-old Evalyn Ibarra is anything but free. She’s desperate to return to a life that no longer exists, but prying reporters continually draw her back into nightmarish memories, using the tabloids to vilify her. Bad press is the last thing she needs during the trial of the year: the case that she and her fellow survivors staked against the Compass Room engineers. A case that could terminate the use of the inhumane system forever…
But in her dreams, she is still locked in that terrifying jail.
When she wakes, someone is trying to communicate with her in secret, through strange and intricate clues. As Evalyn follows their signs, she uncovers a conspiracy that goes so much deeper than her own ordeal. A dangerous intrigue that only she can bring to light. One that will force her to work with the one person she doesn’t want to see.
The person who owns her heart…
Even though she’s escaped, twenty-two-year-old Evalyn Ibarra is anything but free. She’s desperate to return to a life that no longer exists, but prying reporters continually draw her back into nightmarish memories, using the tabloids to vilify her. Bad press is the last thing she needs during the trial of the year: the case that she and her fellow survivors staked against the Compass Room engineers. A case that could terminate the use of the inhumane system forever…
But in her dreams, she is still locked in that terrifying jail.
When she wakes, someone is trying to communicate with her in secret, through strange and intricate clues. As Evalyn follows their signs, she uncovers a conspiracy that goes so much deeper than her own ordeal. A dangerous intrigue that only she can bring to light. One that will force her to work with the one person she doesn’t want to see.
The person who owns her heart…
Excerpt:
In my dream, I’m
alone.
The forest swells
up all around me, warm and dark and moist. It’s a cocoon of comfort, if I
didn’t know better. This is always the worst part of the dream—the feeling of
entrapment, of loneliness. I’m lying on the ground, the underbrush of the woods
spidering over my body, and I smell the Compass Room again. The wood fire, the
soil, the sweat—and the blood, permeating above all the other odors.
It’s always night
in the dream-Compass Room. Fog rolls through the air, thick enough to taste.
I hear the other
candidates. Tanner and Jace scream the loudest. Shrieks of anguish, like their
flesh is slowly being ripped from their bones. I shut my eyes to wait it out
because I know that I can’t save them.
But then I hear
Casey.
The underbrush
ropes me to the ground, growing tighter as I twist and writhe, trying to free
myself to get to him. His voice rips the night in half, and I scream to match
his, back arching off the earth, the entire forest shattering into a thousand
sharp pieces.
I jerk awake, lying
on my back with my hand pressed to my chest, waiting for my heart to stop
pounding. I inhale the cold air of my living room and hold it in my lungs as
the terror dissipates. It’s like waiting for a brain freeze to end. I get up,
flipping on all the light switches in the silent house, checking the shadowy
corners for dream monsters.
Not dream
monsters. Illusions. Nick or Meghan, a Compass Room test crawling from the
darkness. There’s nothing in the house, but of course there wouldn’t be.
I peel back the
curtain in the living room. Fingers of the dark trees sway back and forth with
the wind and I want to throw up my heart. I let the curtain fall back into
place, rush to the kitchen, and take a long pull from the tequila bottle. The
good tequila bottle.
Returning to the
living room, I flop back onto the bed.
The woods in my
dreams are thick, always lurking with Compass Room devils. The woods around my
home are nothing more than a scattering of sad little trees, but my mind
doesn’t care.
Gemma and the
division thought they erased Compass Room C from existence, but they can’t.
It’s everywhere.
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The story begins here:
THE WICKED WE HAVE DONE (Chaos Theory #1)
Twenty-two-year-old Evalyn Ibarra never expected to be an accused killer and experimental prison test subject. A year ago, she was a normal college student. Now she’s been sentenced to a month in the compass room—an advanced prison obstacle course designed by the government to execute justice.
If she survives, the world will know she’s innocent.
Locked up with nine notorious and potentially psychotic criminals, Evalyn must fight the prison and dismantle her past to stay alive. But the system prized for accuracy appears to be killing at random.
She doesn’t plan on making friends.
She doesn’t plan on falling in love, either.
OUR BROKEN SKY (Chaos Theory 1.5)
In The Wicked We Have Done, readers were introduced to Valerie Crane. But you don’t know her the way you think you do. This is her story…
Valerie has always been different from her identical twin Veda. Tattooed, fiery, and foul-mouthed, Valerie acts on instinct, getting even with anyone who wrongs her passive, and sensitive sister.
At twenty-two, Veda doesn’t want to seek revenge against the three young men who raped her. As for Val…
Val never could manage her anger well.
As far as Val sees it, the Compass Room is simply a quicker way for her to die—payment for the crime she feels no guilt over. There isn’t a reason to fight, not until a girl as broken as she is reminds Val of what it’s like to hope…
Sarah Harian grew up in the foothills of Yosemite and received her B.A. and M.F.A. from Fresno State University. When not writing, she is usually hiking some mountain or another in the Sierras, playing video games with her husband, or rough-housing with her dog.
