Fifteen-year-old Holly Latham, her parents, and her autistic eight-year-old sister Katie have entered Witness Protection after Holly witnessed a kidnapping. Holly struggles to adjust to her new life in the small town of Daneshill. Meanwhile, she lives in fear that the criminals will find her.
This novel contains examples of:
- Affectionate Nickname: Holly calls Katie 'Popsicle.'
- Alpha Bitch: Camilla is the most popular girl in school because her dad owns a hotel complex, and because she used to live in America. At first Holly tries to join her friend group, but after they get in a fight, Camilla creates a hate page on Facebook called 'Holly Latham is a Ho'. Other girls post pictures of Holly that they secretly took in school. Joe reports the page and gets it taken down, but Holly is worried that the kidnappers will see it and track her down.
- "Be Quiet!" Nudge: One of the new neighbours asks Holly's mum where the family is from. Mum answers, 'Gloucester.' Katie is about to correct her and say they're actually from London, but Mum yanks her hand to stop her.
- Converse with the Unconscious: After the trial, Holly visits Katya in hospital. She tells Katya that the men who hurt her are all either dead or in prison, and asks her to try to wake up. It doesn't work - Katya remains in her vegetative state.
- Cope by Creating: Last summer, Holly's family stayed next door to Natalia and her teenage daughter Katya, who painted to cope with missing her dad, who had made powerful enemies through some kind of business deal, and worrying about his safety. But it was her own safety she should have been worried about, because her father's enemies hired kidnappers to hold her to ransom.
- Flashback Nightmare: Holly's family decided to enter witness protection after some men kidnapped her and drove her to a remote area to shoot her. She barely managed to escape. She still has nightmares about that night.
- From New York to Nowhere: Holly used to live in London. At first she's bored and miserable in Daneshill. She tries to befriend the popular kids and even briefly dates the popular boy Fraser, but they fall out pretty quickly, partly because they really are unpleasant people but partly because, as Camilla points out, Holly acts like she's better than everyone else.
- Pistol-Whipping: The kidnappers pistol-whipped Katya before they threw her from the car, causing severe brain damage. Now she's in a coma from which she will probably never wake.
- Playing Sick: Holly is so exhausted from drama with her new classmates that she tells her parents she's too sick to go to school. She feels so lonely and miserable that day that she messages her old friend Tasha on Facebook, which she was told not to do. One of the kidnappers has been monitoring Tasha's account. He uses it to send Holly a cartoon that carries a tracking cookie that leads him to her new home.
- Punk in the Trunk: The kidnappers hide Katie in the boot of their car.
- Signature Scent: Joe has a natural spicy smell, which Holly greatly prefers to the overpowering smell of deodorant or aftershave that some boys have.
- Significant Name Shift: At first Holly dislikes Joe and thinks of him as 'Emo Boy.' She doesn't start thinking of him by his name until she starts to get to know him.
- That Man Is Dead: At first Holly feels like her new identity is a costume. But as the months go by, she starts to feel that her old self, Louisa Drummond, is gone, and Holly has become a real person.
- Vehicular Kidnapping: Katya's kidnappers drove up and down the lane in a white car with a rear spoiler about ten times a day. Katie noticed it, but Holly didn't think much about it, until one night when the drivers stopped at Katya's house and abducted her. Months later, one of the kidnappers and some other goons grab Katie from her special school in a Lindop Joiners van and use her as bait for Holly.
