Even when we need to rely on others for safety or comfort, we like to maintain a sense of personal freedom and choice. This penultimate week of the 2023 SYNC season, we are swept into stories in which the leading characters are not in charge. What can happen when personal control of our lives is taken away from us? Thanks to Scholastic Audiobooks and Thomas Nelson, we get front row seats for events several people experience in that situation—all without leaving our own sense of independence behind.

THE GETAWAY is a fiendishly clever and well-performed horror story written by popular author Lamar Giles and narrated by Karl T. Wright, Imani Parks, and P.J. Ochlan. Do you enjoy theme parks? You may be more hesitant about visiting them after your visit to Karloff Country, where the workers are slaves and the owners’ public relations campaign reeks of insincerity. Join Karl T. Wright as he describes it:

Paired with this nightmarish wild ride, we have a sillier but no less destabilizing collection by Lewis Carroll. Narrator Simon Bubb pulls us into THE WONDERLAND COLLECTION, where we are treated to two novels—Alice in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass—and a collection of short stories called A Tangled Tale which uses the author’s professional interest in mathematics as the launch pad for puzzling (but solvable) plots. Bubb brings all the surreal adventures experienced by Alice and the silly creatures she meets expertly to life. This collection is unlikely to provoke nightmares—although it must be noted that Alice really is as trapped in the whimsical games others direct as the workers at Karloff Country are ensnared in the much more horror-inducing theme park.

Be sure to move this pair to your Sora shelf by 11:59 pm ET on July 26. The very next day begins our final week of this SYNC season!