Blaming the Child — K.T. Bowes

“You hate too many things, Cal,” he sighed, brushing stray curls away from her face. “Your heart doesn't have room for it all.” When Callister Rhodes runs away from home, she expects to leave her problems far behind. Persuading a classmate to take her into the bush on Mount Pirongia, they stumble upon a secret that is not easily forgotten and its menace follows her back to Hamilton, staining her new life with old, familiar wounds. What happens in the bush should stay in the bush, but it won't. As the consequence of what they did wraps itself around the teenagers, they find themselves in danger. Calli realises all too late that the demons in her past have come full circle and want payback. The treacherous New Zealand bush offers Calli love and salvation before snatching both cruelly away. But in her quest to find escape she is forced to test her own limits and ultimately, find herself. This storyline contains issues such as mental illness, self-harming and the theme of rape is touched upon, but not explicitly.