Echoes of Marrow Bay

About this book

In the sun-bleached coastal city of Marrow Bay, seventeen-year-old Lea Santos lives by her color-coded planner, managing her anxiety through strict organization. But her carefully structured world is disrupted when she secures a spot in The Living Atlas, a prestigious youth program led by the enigmatic Ms. Inez Vale. The assignment seems simple: create audio walking tours of the city's overlooked corners. However, Ms. Vale soon reveals the true stakes: the beloved but ramshackle pier district, home to generations of memories, is slated for early demolition to make way for a massive resilience project. The students have just four weeks to prove the district's cultural value through their soundscapes or watch it vanish behind construction barriers forever. Teaming up with Malik Reed, a sound design prodigy who hears music in background noise, and Kiri Paku, a chaotic but brilliant oral historian, Lea must step out of her comfort zone. As they race against the clock to capture the heartbeat of the pier—interviewing fishermen, recording tidepool echoes, and uncovering forgotten histories—Lea learns that not everything can be planned, and sometimes the most important voices are the ones you have to lean in to hear.