Twelve-year-old Will arrives in a dying Tennessee town determined to leave his past behind. Years of being teased and overlooked have worn him down. A new town means a new name, a new self, and a chance to become someone others don’t forget. And that hope takes shape in the Caver Gang, a tight-knit group of friends who gather in a neighborhood field. 

In the hushed woods of the Appalachian foothills, Will must brave the crawl through the Beginner’s Maw and claim the Caver’s Gulp to join the Cavers. After he makes it through their initiation ritual, he earns the right to carve his name into the stone monolith that they call The Rock.

But initiation is only the beginning.

The others take him to a deeper, older place. Through the woods, across creeks, and under the hills, a cave where something ancient waits. The cave’s occupant speaks in riddles and borrowed voices but never lies. To ask a question, you must bring it three coins: one borrowed, one bargained, and one stolen.

The Bitter Question is a psychological, mythic-horror disguised as a coming-of-age novel. It asks what we’re willing to trade to be remembered. Every question is a path and every answer leaves a mark.

It began with a foolish question.

And ends with the price of knowing.

An answer costs three coins. But the truth will cost you everything.