You never know where a good cake can take you.

Young alligator Riley is just trying to get his foot-claw in the door of the baking world. But even with the help of his Beast friends—his hyena roommate, a raccoon clockmaker neighbor, a creative equine, his porcupine mentor, a new cheetah and a half-drunk horse—it's all he can do just to get by. In an aged city without electricity or paved roads, deluged by constant rain, they must struggle to scavenge what they can to survive.

This would be hard enough without the Pure on the other side of the bridges—humanity—treating them like mere animals.

It's with great hope that Riley bakes his first ever cake to sell. The last thing he expected was that it would catch the attention of a Pure. Once the eyes of Captain Kauffner are set on Riley, everything spirals out of control.

Now Riley and his companions are dodging the dead things that roam the streets, marching through the overhunted wilds surrounding the city, crossing paths with killers, dealing with unscrupulous rival bakers, and putting a stop to rampaging machines, all the while ricocheting down a terrible crash course into secrets Beasts were never meant to find—and while something menacing watches them from the sewers.

Each gathered ingredient, every step toward the perfect cake, brings Riley closer to who he is and the Beasts who surround him. As he's pulled along by the confections and life beyond his doorstep, Riley finds there is courage in cake icing and sugar.

Nick Whitcomb's vivid and imaginative debut The Twin Cities is a story of community, catastrophe, and cake sure to resonate with readers of fantasy and horror alike.