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A hardened care worker takes her teen charges on the road to escape a dangerous near-future Texas heat wave in the mordant debut from Nolan. Beatrice Campbell is the supervisor of Twin Bridge, a mental health residence for girls run by a company called Tender Kare, outsourced by the state and funded by the girls' forced participation in drug trials. The latest trial drug, BeZen, shows impressive results in controlling the girls' disruptive behavior, though it makes them "forget glacial chunks of their past." Beatrice isn't too bothered by this side effect ("I was good at my job because I lacked imagination. Only occasionally, in raw accidental bursts, did I think about the unhappiness of the girls," she narrates), and Tender Kare is so encouraged that they offer to move the staff and residents to a new and nicer facility in Atlanta. Before Beatrice can secure their travel money, though, Twin Bridge loses power during a dangerous heat wave. Convinced she needs to get the girls to Atlanta for their survival, Beatrice sets off with them in a stolen passenger van and a dwindling supply of BeZen. Their journey, however, hits a series of snags, first with a delayed crossing into Louisiana, where they wind up stuck after the state closes its borders. Nolan keenly portrays Beatrice's hope and despair as she transforms from bureaucrat to would-be savior. This glimpse into a terrifyingly plausible future smuggles tenderness amid the horrors. Agents: Ellen Levine and Audrey Crooks, Trident Media Group. (Oct.)

A treatment center's planned relocation is upended by the effects of climate change. The first words from Beatrice, the narrator of Nolan's debut novel, are, "I lived in a box in the desert." But it wasn't always a desert; climate change has permanently altered the landscape of the northeast Texas town of Askewn, where Beatrice works as a coordinator at Twin Bridge Residential Treatment Center. The facility, "home for the traumatized/neglected/abused/criminal, oblivion addicts as a rule," houses teenage girls. It's run by a social services company that has partnered with a pharmaceutical outfit, which plies the girls with BeZen, a drug that seems to be effective at treating their mental illnesses. Beatrice and her co-workers are planning to move the home to Atlanta if her report on the girls' reaction to BeZen is approved, but two things get in the way: bureaucracy, of course, but also a heatwave that sparks a power grid failure that throws much of the state into anarchy. Ordered to evacuate, Beatrice, a few of her co-workers, and seven of the girls decide to head to Georgia anyway, where there may or may not be a place for them. Things get bad, and then they get worse when the BeZen runs out. Beatrice, whose memories of her own unhappy childhood are seamlessly integrated into the narrative, proves to be a memorable character, as does Teresa, the oldest girl in the center, whose battle with her demons Nolan portrays beautifully. While the subject matter is as serious as can be, Nolan leavens the novel with gallows humor: At one point in their journey, Beatrice's search terms include "how smuggle best child drug withdrawal" and "mississippi how easy swim dead drowned missing die". The darkness of this excellent novel is amplified by how terrifyingly plausible it all is. A self-assured debut that is also a warning. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.