The Girl Who Was Supposed to Die is a thriller/suspense novel by New York Times-bestselling author April Henry. Published in 2013, the novel involves a 16-year-old protagonist who wakes up in a cabin in the woods. She has no recollection of who she is or how she’s ended up in the cabin. There are obvious signs that she’s been tortured, and she overhears that she is going to be killed. With this beginning, The Girl Who Was Supposed to Die takes the reader on a hair-raising, page-turning journey to uncover the protagonist’s past as she tries to stay one step ahead of the people pursuing her. April Henry is the author of many other acclaimed novels, both for adults and young adults, including Girl, Stolen (2010), The Night She Disappeared (2012), and The Girl I Used to Be (2016).

The narrative begins with an unnamed teen protagonist—Cadence “Cady” Scott—regaining consciousness in a cabin. She’s tied up, sore, and confused. She has no recollection of how she ended up in the cabin. What’s worse, however, is that she doesn’t remember who she is. She overhears two men taking about her fate and comes to realize very quickly that the men intend to kill her. She evidently doesn’t know anything, and one of them reminds the other that she can incriminate them both if they let her live. She tries her best to register their voices and notices that one of the men wears oxblood shoes. One man leaves and entrusts the other to finish the job. When she’s dragged outside, she decides that, though she has no clue what’s happening, she wants to live and try to find out. She waits for an opening and fights back again her sole captive, Michael Brenner. She’s able to injure him and flee the scene, yet she has no idea where to go or who to trust. Before she leaves, she takes a photo of a family that might be hers, and she steals her captor’s gun.

The protagonist flees to the nearest police station, but after telling her story and being locked inside a police car, realizes that the men who are after her have gotten to Officer Dillow, an officer she thought she could trust. Using her assailant’s gun, she manages to lock the officer in his own car and flees again, realizing that she can’t trust anyone at this point. She learns from the officer that her name is supposedly “Katie,” which is one of the first clues she gets into who she is. The officer also mentions that she’s a patient at Sagebrush, a mental institution, thus casting doubt on her story as a victim of a heinous crime. With all the newfound knowledge, she must try to determine what to believe and what her next steps should be.

Cady enters a McDonald’s to eat and meets Ty, a young man about her same age. Ty soon comes to Cady’s aid when the men return and are searching for her. Not knowing exactly what’s happening, Ty helps Cady in her time of need and, from this point forward, remains with her as she tries to unravel the truth behind her kidnapping and torture. The two flee to Ty’s place, where Cady meets his roommate, James. James is initially skeptical of helping her, but when push comes to shove, he also helps Cady flee when, this time, the men arrive at Ty’s apartment complex. Ty and Cady—disguised as a teen boy—go on the run, all the while trying to stay one step ahead of the dangerous men who seem to know her every move. Complicating matters, when her purported aunt comes to Portland to help, there is a sense of relief, only for Cady’s world to be dashed again when she realizes she’s being duped by her parents’ company, Z-Biotech.

Cady, who soon learns her name isn’t “Katie,” is wanted by Z-Biotech because they think she has information about a hantavirus her parents were working on before they fled with her little brother, Max. The company wants to make a bioweapon from this virus and sell it to the highest bidder, but Cady’s parents must be found for this to happen, as they’re the only ones who know the formula. The stakes are raised when Cady makes contact with her parents, only to realize that the hantavirus has infected her little brother. With the help of Ty, she must then go into the bowels of hell—Z-Biotech—to try and find the vaccine in enough time to save her brother. Cady must use everything within her to outsmart Z-Biotech and the company’s CEO, Kirk Nowell. She is able to trick Nowell into discarding what he believes is the vaccine, and he inadvertently causes an explosion within the Z-Biotech lab, resulting in injury and his eventual arrest.

In the end, Cady is reunited with her family, who have all received the medical treatments they required. The government is able to issue a copy of the vaccine to farmers who may be exposed to the hantavirus in the future. Months after the explosive incident at the lab, Cady is skiing with Ty, and together, they share a first kiss.