It's For Your Own Good

By: Kate Francis

Age 14+

RRP A$19.99

Coming July 2026

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The utterly addictive new YA thriller from the queen of twists, Kate Francis. For fans of The Traitors, Karen M. McManus and E. Lockhart.

In the middle of the night, Liv Walker is kidnapped from her bedroom by two masked figures. As she's dragged into an unmarked van, she's met with an even more horrifying sight: her family are waving goodbye.

Camp Smiling Skies is a wilderness therapy camp for "troubled teens". At least, that's what it says in the brochure. In truth, it's filled with dark secrets, cruel counsellors and no chance of escape.

Things seem as bad as they can get...until, one by one, people start to die.

Liv has already been betrayed by her family, but it seems like they're not the only traitors in her life.

There's a murderer in the camp, and everyone's a suspect.

Praise for CIRCLE OF LIARS:

"Incredibly tense and beyond gripping." Ravena Guron, bestselling author of THIS BOOK KILLS

"Fast paced, gripping and very, very twisty... This book is guaranteed to give you sleepless nights until you finish it." Sarah Wishart, author of FOUR GOOD LIARS

Details

Extent:: 352 pages
Dimensions:: 198 x 130mm
Paperback ISBN:: 9781836048404
Publication Date:: July 2026
Work Reference:: 10542

Author

Kate Francis is an English-American writer and architect. She graduated from Edinburgh University and the Bartlett School of Architecture, and worked as an architect for several top design firms in London. Her debut YA thriller, Circle of Liars, was published internationally and translated into multiple languages. She now lives in California with her three kids. When she's not building something, she enjoys kayaking, walking the dog, and crafting interesting ways to kill off fictional teenagers.

Find out more about Kate Francis

Press

As if being kidnapped in the middle of the night, for her own good, isn't bad enough, Liv now has to deal with being stuck in the wilderness camp with a vindictive camp leader, a collection of feral teens, and a dead body!
Trapped in the mountains between a raging river and flooded out roads, during a wildly escalating storm, things rapidly spiral out of control. When everyone's hiding guilty secrets, who is the killer and who's just trying to survive?
It's The Breakfast Club meets the Traitors, in this treacherous world-nothing is as it seems and everything is worse than you think! Be prepared to be swept away by this twisty, adrenaline fueled, thriller!

Keely Parrack

Set at a deeply unsettling wilderness camp with no way of escape for Liv, an extraordinarily determined main character, this is a pacy, gripping thriller where no one can be trusted. Surprising and sinister and with Francis' now signature mounting tension on each page, I read this in one sitting.

Ravena Guron, author of This Book Kills