The Wrong Way Home

Written by Kate O'Shaughnessy

Fern must choose between a familiar lie and an uncertain truth.

4.3/5 Goodreads · 2,823 ratings

336 pages· 78,094 words· Est. 11 hour read

$17.99Save 6%

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Bookroo's summary

Fern's world shatters when her mother reveals their idyllic Ranch life is a lie. Torn between returning to the only home she's known and embracing the unknown, Fern must decide if she can trust Dr. Ben or forge her own path. As she navigates the outside world, she discovers truths that challenge everything she believed. Will Fern cling to the past or embrace a future she controls? Her journey is one of courage, self-discovery, and the power to question everything she once held dear.

From the publisher

Twelve-year-old Fern believes she’s living a noble life–but what if everything she’s been told is a lie? This is a huge-hearted story about a girl learning to question everything–and to trust in herself. Fern’s lived at the Ranch, an off-the-grid, sustainable community in upstate New York, since she was six. The work is hard, but Fern admires the Ranch’s leader, Dr. Ben. So when Fern’s mother sneaks them away in the middle of the night and says Dr. Ben is dangerous, Fern doesn’t believe it. She wants desperately to go back, but her mom just keeps driving. Suddenly thrust into the treacherous, toxic, outside world, Fern thinks only about how to get home again. She has a plan, but it will take time. As that time goes by, though, Fern realizes there are things she will miss from this place–the library, a friend from school, the ocean–and there are things she learned at the Ranch that are just…not true. Now Fern will have to decide. How much is she willing to give up to return to the Ranch? Should she trust Dr. Ben’s vision for her life? Or listen to the growing feeling that she can live by her own rules?