Ragtag: City of Ash and Fire

A cyberpunk fairytale. A different Alice in a wonderless land.

Seventeen-year-old Jezebel Winters has fallen from grace.

Once a member of SkyApt, the elite housing complex that protects the one percent in the New Satellite Republic of America, formerly Boston, a political coup leads to the murder of Jezebel's parents and her brother's disappearance. Overnight Jezebel's status switches from citizen to illegal pariah. The hunt is on.

Terrified and alone, Jezebel flees into the dangerous urban jungle of the N.S.R.A. where half-human, half-android creatures roam and vicious machines called Graph Angels target all illegals. Using a combination of gymnastic daring and survivor instincts, Jezebel makes contact with the fabled Ragtag Whirly Girlies, an all-female gang of thieves whose DIY tech includes wrist lasers and jet packs that allow them to evade capture by government forces. Can Jezebel cement her place among the Ragtags, harness their revolutionary tech, and locate her parents' killer before her luck runs out?

It's Alice in Wonderland meets Blade Runner in this high-octane dystopian adventure that explores what might happen if we lose empathy for each other and respect for our environment.

J.R. Potter is the award-winning author and illustrator of the Thomas Creeper series about a reluctant thirteen-year-old mortician turned detective for the dead. The novel won the 2019 Kraken Prize for Middle Grade Fiction is now featured in libraries from San Francisco to Saudi Arabia and included in two teaching curricula in the United States and the Dominican Republic. His graphic novel work has been published by Image Comics, and his short fiction has appeared in the The Portland Review and various fiction anthologies. When not writing about ghosts with vendettas or teenage underdogs, Potter writes and illustrates for educational publishers Pioneer Valley Books and Heinemann Publishing, helping boost literacy, empathy, and wonder in schools across the world.