Some shadows never let go.

Seventeen-year-old Cody Sterling doesn’t believe he’s crazy. He sees creatures no one else can—spectrals made of light and dark energies. He knows they’re real because he watched one kill his father. Ever since, that same presence has haunted him.

The doctors call it trauma. Cody knows better. He calls it Mr. Shadow.

After a violent incident at school and a devastating betrayal at home, Cody is sent to New Beginnings, a wilderness therapy program deep in Idaho’s remote Payette National Forest. Surrounded by towering pines and complete isolation, he joins four other troubled teens and two counselors determined to pull them back from the edge.

But Cody didn’t leave everything behind. Mr. Shadow followed—and the woods are the perfect feeding ground.

As secrets surface and the group begins to unravel, Cody must make an impossible choice: speak up about what haunts him… or watch everyone be swallowed by the dark. With something monstrous closing in, survival means more than staying alive—it means facing the darkness inside and out.

WILDERNESS is the chilling first book in The Spectral Chronicles, a cinematic YA horror series that blends psychological suspense, supernatural terror, and an unflinching journey through trauma, truth, and healing. Perfect for fans of Neal Shusterman, Courtney Gould, and Rory Power.