Original title: Jäljellä
Author: Salla Simukka
Published: 2012
Publisher: Tammi
Genre: Young Adult (13 or 14+)
Pages: 221
Have you ever wished that everyone else in the world would just disappear? You’d better watch out what you wish for.
Emmi Aalto is a 15-year-old girl who feels like she doesn’t have anything. She hasn’t figured out what she’s good at in school yet; she’s still just a “Potential”. Her family doesn’t seem to pay any attention to her at home. And she has never had any friends. Emmi decides to run away, so she could at least become the girl who disappeared. But when she comes back home, there’s no one there. Or next door. Or in the entire town. Everyone has disappeared – or have they?
Without a Trace is a mysterious story of the near future, where being normal is nothing. It is also a suspense-filled mystery that sends an avalanche of questions sliding down in front of Emmi. What happened? Who can she trust? Who are her friends? Does she dare to fall in love? Who is sending her fairytales clues, and what are they trying to communicate? Without a Trace tells about loneliness that isn’t inevitable after all, and the courage that lies within.
Elsewhere, a sequel that contains the missing pieces of the puzzle from Without a Trace, was released in Fall 2012.