Alison Ames

Alison Ames made her novel debut with To Break a Covenant, a supernatural thriller for teen readers set around an abandoned mine. Moon Basin survived a disaster by rebuilding as New Basin and trading on stories of hauntings, but underground fires and strange behavior keep the old workings present in local life. Clem, Nina, Lisey, and newcomer Piper gradually connect nightmares, voices, and Piper's father's fixation on the mine. Their friendship becomes the practical center of the investigation as the girls decide to enter the place older residents have failed to understand. Page Street Publishing issued this debut in 2021, and Kirkus described its coming-of-age story as wrapped in a spooky atmosphere. Ames uses transcripts from ghost-hunting programs to enlarge the town's history without leaving Clem's close perspective. The result established themes that recur in Ames's later fiction: isolated settings, bodily and environmental unease, queer characters, and young people forced to test whether loyalty can survive a place determined to hold them.