The Vanishing Station

The Vanishing Station is a lyrical and bold YA debut that follows eighteen-year-old Filipino American Ruby Santos as she grapples with the recent death of her mother, mounting hospital bills, and her father's descent into alcoholism. When Ruby discovers her father's secret life as a magical delivery person for a dangerous underground network in San Francisco, she volunteers to take his place to save their home from debt collectors. This decision pulls her into a world of illicit goods, fierce rivalries, and a mysterious boy, forcing her to confront the perils her father faced and find her own strength. The book explores themes of grief, family loyalty, addiction, and the courage to protect loved ones, all wrapped in a compelling urban fantasy setting.

A lyrical and bold YA debut about an underground magic system in San Francisco--and the lengths one girl is willing to go to protect the ones she loves Eighteen-year-old Filipino American Ruby Santos has been unmoored since her mother's death. She can't apply to art school like she's always dreamed, and she and her father have had to move into the basement of their home and rent out the top floor while they work to pay back her mother's hospital bills. Then Ruby finds out her father has been living a secret life as a delivery person for a magical underworld--he "jumps" train lines to help deliver packages for a powerful family. Recently, he's fallen behind on deliveries (and deeper into alcoholism), and if his debts aren't satisfied, they're going to take her mother's house. In an effort to protect her father and save all that remains of her mother, Ruby volunteers to take over her dad's station and start jumping train lines. But this is no ordinary job. Ruby soon realizes that the trains are much more than doors to romance and adventure: they're also doors to trafficking illicit goods and fierce rivalries. As she becomes more entangled with the magical underworld and the mysterious boy who's helped her to learn magic, she realizes too late that she may be in over her head. Can she free her father and save her mother's house? Or has she only managed to get herself pulled into the dangerous web her father was trapped in?