A popular body cream makes all girls sparkle, but it doesn’t work on Black skin. Bryn is the only Black girl on her volleyball team, at her school, practically in her whole town—and she can’t shine like the other girls.

Then she gets an invitation in the mail—cryptic and exclusive. An all-girls’ retreat wants Bryn to join them for the summer, and it’s the chance Bryn has been wishing for. A chance to be anywhere else.

Bryn is The Only when she arrives at the retreat, too. At least makeup is banned; at least she isn’t the only one whose skin doesn’t twinkle.

Here, she discovers a river in the woods. A tranquil, skin-boiling river in the woods. That swallows her with the heat of a blue flame whenever she jumps into it. But, each time she survives Hell, it spits her out shining. And the water left behind makes the other girls sparkle, too.

They want it. They need it. They can’t live without it, without her.

Bryn wants it, too. To be needed. To be beautiful. So she jumps. So she burns. So she shines.

This wonderland is a miracle. This wonderland is a curse. This wonderland is surreal, and it doesn’t make sense. But look around—at the world we’re living in—and tell me: these days, what does?