Seven All Alone

Seven teens returning to the scene of a traumatic memory must evade an unknown assailant in this formulaic survival thriller by McKay (Have You Seen My Sister?). A prologue details the kidnapping of Maggie and her six elementary school classmates. After the others escape captivity in the Scottish Highlands and leave Maggie behind, a later encounter between the six-year-old and her kidnapper culminates in her captor falling off a cliff. Ten years later, the youths, now teenagers, head back into the Highlands for a school-sanctioned camping trip chaperoned by Maggie’s math teacher father. While most of the company overcomes their first mountain obstacle—a river crossing—via boat, the vessel is soon carried downstream by the fast-moving rapids with only Maggie’s father and classmate Ant on board. Now stranded, the six remaining teens take shelter in a seemingly abandoned shepherd’s hut, waiting for the pair to return. But as the weather worsens and their lost companions fail to appear, things go from bad to worse. Maggie’s emotional strength and vulnerability, and her desire to overcome feelings of abandonment brought about by people she believed were her friends, make up the core of this high-stakes whodunit. Maggie and Ant read as white. Ages 12–17. Agent: Veronique Baxter, David Higham Assoc. (Dec.)