"Marivic Stone lives in a small world and that's just fine with her. Home is with her beloved grandfather (Gumps) in Darby, New Mexico, a small town that just happens to be famous for a medical discovery that saved humankind -- though not without significant repurcussions. Marivic loves her best friend, Saren, and the two of them promise to stick together, through thick and thin, and especially through the uncertain winnowing procedure, a now inevitable -- but dangerous -- part of adolescence. But when news of Saren's death thrusts Marivic into a world of conspiracy, rebellion and revolution, for the first time in her life, Marivic is forced to think and act big. If she is going to avenge Saren and right a decade of wrongs, she will need to trust her own frightening new abilities, even when it means turning her back on everything, and everyone, she's known and loved. A gripping exploration of love and loss, The Winnowing is a page-turning adventure that will have readers rooting for their new hero, Marivic Stone, as they unravel the horror and intrigue of a world at-once familiar but with a chilling strangeness not far beneath the everyday."--