• Age: 14 to 18
• Grade: 9 to 12
• Reading age: 14 to 16

Sixteen-year-old Sarah Meadows longs for "normal." Born with a port wine stain covering half her face, all her life she’s been plagued by stares, giggles, bullying, and disgust. But when she’s abducted on the way home from school, Sarah is forced to uncover the courage she never knew she had, become a hero rather than a victim, and learn to look beyond her face to find the beauty and strength she has inside. It’s that—or succumb to a killer.

Cheryl Rainfield is the author of the novels Scars and Hunted. A survivor of abuse, she often draws upon her own experience in her intense and highly charged fiction, heralding the strength and courage of ordinary people. She lives in Toronto, Canada. Visit her website at www.cherylrainfield.com.

Cheryl Rainfield's profile page

A Bank Street College Best Book of the Year
"Sarah's determination to stay alive and escape will resonate with readers, and they will cheer her efforts to overcome her underdog status." 
—Kirkus
"Sarah's refusal to be a victim will stick with readers."
—Publishers Weekly
"Rainfield has written a novel of psychological suspense."
—Booklist
"Rainfield has drawn upon her own experiences to create a powerful and disturbing novel about the abduction and torture of a young woman that recalls recent horrifying news stories. . . . Readers will findStained almost impossible to read and, at the same time, almost impossible to put down."
—VOYA, 4Q 4P S