14-year-old Rae Dawn Viola has always been on the outside. New prep school, mean girls who treat her like an outsider, and a grandmother who’s the only person who truly gets her. But when the sky above the Pacific Ocean cracks open and swallows them both whole, out of her element stops being a metaphor.

One moment Rae is on the shore with her grandmother, and the next moment, a chasm tears open the sky and the world drops out from under them both. Rae lands in Elementum, a world whose people are named after periodic table elements and wired with the personality traits to match. Rae Dawn becomes Radon, and honestly, the noble-gas-who-works-alone thing rings true in ways that nothing else at home ever has. But her grandmother is missing, and that personality trait is exactly the wrong power for a girl who’s going to need allies.

Until now, Rae’s biggest challenge was surviving the mean girls. In Elementum, she’s thrust into a coup threatening to overthrow the dynasty she never knew was hers, placing a big-time target on her back. To find her grandmother, protect a people she’s only just met, and reclaim a crown she never asked for, Rae must trade her morning Pop-Tart and track shoes for veggies and ill-fitting warrior boots. Her only guaranteed ally is an infuriatingly capable bodyguard whose loyalty she can’t quite figure out — and neither can her heart. But maybe for once, being the fish out of water is the strongest tool in her tool belt.