Stray

On her last day of high school, Cassandra Devlin walked out
of exams and into a forest. Surrounded by the wrong sort of trees, and animals
never featured in any nature documentary, Cass is only sure of one thing:
alone, she will be lucky to survive.

The sprawl of abandoned blockish buildings Cass discovers offers her only more puzzles. Where are the people? What is the intoxicating
mist which drifts off the buildings in the moonlight? And why does she feel
like she's being watched?

Increasingly unnerved, Cass is overjoyed at the arrival of
the formidable Setari. Whisked to a world as technologically advanced as the
first was primitive, where nanotech computers are grown inside people's skulls,
and few have any interest in venturing outside the enormous whitestone cities,
Cass finds herself processed as a 'stray', a refugee displaced by the gates torn
between worlds. Struggling with an unfamiliar language and culture, she must
adapt to virtual classrooms, friends who can teleport, and the ingrained
attitude that strays are backward and slow.

Can
Cass ever find her way home?  And after
the people of her new world discover her unexpected value, will they be willing
to let her leave?

Keywords: science fiction, ya, young adult, young adult science fiction, science fiction romance, teen, psychics, space adventure, portal fantasy, australian author