“Rosemary’s Baby but set in Northern Minnesota” is how author Cheri Johnson describes her latest work. Annika Rose follows the title character as she navigates the early stages of adulthood while understanding a snarl of relationships between friends, her father, and other residents of the remote Lake of the Woods County.
An only-child to a single-parent, Annika’s transition through her formative years was a lonely one. “I was always thinking about what that would have done to her; that social isolation,” says Johnson of her protagonist. As the story follows Annika, we see uncertainty when she meets new neighbors and avoidance tactics when faced with running into peers.