A complex, cinematic, engrossing horror novel with thrills and chills galore.
Miners unearth an evil entity in Tracey’s horror novel.
An Ohio mining operation blasts out a basketball-size, glowing, red crystal orb from one of the salt rock faces thousands of feet beneath Lake Erie. The object begins leaking a black, skin-melting substance and emitting irradiated, laser-like flashes of “phantom energy” that incinerate everyone at the site. From the ashes of that horrific event emerges an ancient, inhuman creature bent on planetary destruction. Inexplicable events, including mysterious explosions, vanishing towns, mutilated corpses, societal unease and panic, and fires across the skies, become commonplace across the globe. Crime scene investigator Lori Cruz appears on the scene to solve a series of bloodless, surgically precise killings devoid of a motive or a murder suspect. Lori is aided by stoner collegiate cohorts and genius-grade scientific AI geeks Dimitri and Andy, and by expert mathematician Keenan, who’s developed a device to measure the saturation of paranormal energy. Together, they work to solve the riddle of this population decimation and stop it before civilization is completely ravaged by the evil entity (elegantly named Allister Smoke). Tracey expertly builds layer upon layer of dread, haunting suspense, and malevolence in the form of a shadowy, fedora-wearing specter with midnight-black eyes. While the exciting story never seems to slow down, some readers may feel that the novel is a tad overstuffed with details and superfluous exposition. Nevertheless, the pages fly by as the menacing apparition goes about systematically extinguishing all of the world’s minds and bodies. The story is marvelously character-driven with pitch perfect dialogue; the insidious supernatural elements are finely developed and sharpened with brutal precision. An expansive, devilishly creative, genre-bending work incorporating horror, fantasy, and science fiction elements, this 600-page doorstopper requires a healthy attention span and a true appreciation for all things sinister.
A complex, cinematic, engrossing horror novel with thrills and chills galore.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2022
ISBN: 9798364364210
Page Count: 614
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: July 18, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A grim yet gleefully gratifying tale of lost innocence and found family.
A woman fears she made a fatal mistake by taking in a blood-soaked tween during a storm.
High winds and torrential rain are forecast for “The Middle of Nowhere, New Hampshire,” making Casey question the structural integrity of her ramshackle rental cabin. Still, she’s loath to seek shelter with her lecherous landlord or her paternalistic neighbor, so instead she just crosses her fingers, gathers some candles, and hopes for the best. Casey is cooking dinner when she notices a light in her shed. She grabs her gun and investigates, only to find a rail-thin girl hiding in the corner under a blanket. She’s clutching a knife with “Eleanor” written on the handle in black marker, and though her clothes are bloody, she appears uninjured. The weather is rapidly worsening, so before she can second-guess herself, former Boston-area teacher Casey invites the girl—whom she judges to be 12 or 13—inside to eat and get warm. A wary but starving Eleanor accepts in exchange for Casey promising not to call the police—a deal Casey comes to regret after the phones go down, the power goes out, and her hostile, sullen guest drops something that’s a big surprise. Meanwhile, in interspersed chapters labeled “Before,” middle-schooler Ella befriends fellow outcast Anton, who helps her endure life in Medford, Massachusetts, with her abusive, neglectful hoarder of a mother. As per her usual, McFadden lulls readers using a seemingly straightforward thriller setup before launching headlong into a series of progressively seismic (and increasingly bonkers) plot twists. The visceral first-person, present-tense narrative alternates perspectives, fostering tension and immediacy while establishing character and engendering empathy. Ella and Anton’s relationship particularly shines, its heartrending authenticity counterbalancing some of the story’s soapier turns.
A grim yet gleefully gratifying tale of lost innocence and found family.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781464260919
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
At turns spooky and funny, with bits of inside baseball and a swimming pool’s worth of blood.
Hill, son of the master, turns in a near-perfect homage to Stephen King.
Arthur Oakes has problems. One is that his mom, a social justice warrior, has landed in the slammer for unintentional manslaughter. And he’s one of just three Black kids at an expensive college (in Maine, of course), an easy target. A local townie drug dealer extorts him into stealing rare books from the school’s library, including one bound in human skin. The unwilling donor of said skin turns up, and so do various sinister people, one reminiscent of Tolkien’s Gollum, another a hick who lives—well, sort of—to kill. Then there’s Colin Wren, whose grandfather collects things occult. As will happen, an excursion into that arcana conjures up the title character, a very evil dragon, who strikes an agreement with fine print requiring Arthur and his circle to provide him with a sacrifice every Easter. “It’s a bad idea to make a deal with them,” says Arthur, belatedly. “Language is one of their weapons…as much as the fire they breathe or the tail that can knock down a house.” King Sorrow roasts his first victims, and the years roll by, with Arthur becoming a medieval scholar (fittingly enough, with a critical scene set at King Arthur’s fortress at Tintagel), Colin a tech billionaire with Muskian undertones (“King Sorrow was a dragon, but Colin was some sort of dark sorcerer”), and others of their circle suffering from either messing with dragons or living in an America of despair. There’s never a dull moment, and though Hill’s yarn is very long, it’s full of twists and turns and, beg pardon, Easter eggs pointing to Kingly takes on politics, literature, and internet trolls (a meta MAGA remark comes from an online review of Arthur’s book on dragons: “i was up for a good book about finding magical sords and stabbing dragons and rescuing hot babes in chainmail panties but instead i got a lot of WOKE nonsense.…and UGH it just goes on and on, couldve been hundreds of pages shorter”).
At turns spooky and funny, with bits of inside baseball and a swimming pool’s worth of blood.Pub Date: Oct. 21, 2025
ISBN: 9780062200600
Page Count: 896
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
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