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Fantasticland : A Novel
by Mike Bockoven
Since the 1970s, FantasticLand has been the theme park where “Fun is Guaranteed!” But when a hurricane ravages the Florida coast and isolates the park, the employees find it anything but fun. Five weeks later, the authorities who rescue the survivors encounter a scene of horror. Photos soon emerge online of heads on spikes outside of rides and viscera and human bones littering the gift shops, breaking records for hits, views, likes, clicks, and shares. How could a group of survivors, mostly teenagers, commit such terrible acts? Park policy was that the mostly college-aged employees surrender their electronic devices to preserve the authenticity of the FantasticLand experience. Cut off from the world and left on their own, the teenagers soon form rival tribes who viciously compete for food, medicine, social dominance, and even human flesh. This new social network divides the ravaged dreamland into territories ruled by the Pirates, the ShopGirls, the Freaks, and the Mole People. If meticulously curated online personas can replace private identities, what takes over when those constructs are lost?
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| The Devil Crept In: A Novel by Ania AhlbornThe residents of Deer Valley, Oregon have worried for years about the mysterious deaths and disappearances of animals, and -- even more disturbing -- the death of a young boy. Now 12-year-old Jude Brighton has also gone missing, and his ten-year-old cousin Stevie Clark fears that the woods harbor a monster. Jude suddenly returns, but Stevie senses that he's changed beyond recognition. Author Ania Ahlborn sensitively portrays her characters' emotions while deftly escalating the dread that emanates from the forest. Fans of Graham Masterton's Forest Ghost will appreciate The Devil Crept In for its portrayal of a child's apprehension of evil in the woods. |
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| Little Heaven: A Novel by Nick Cutter; illustrated by Adam GorhamOpening in 1980, Little Heaven reunites three professional killers (Micah Shughrue, Minerva Atwater, and Ebenezer Elkins) who barely survived a rescue operation 15 years earlier in remote New Mexico, where a shape-shifting evil creature occupies the mountains. The gruesome, vividly described events of 1965 left its participants victorious but psychologically damaged. In 1980 the monster returns and snatches Micah's daughter, forcing him to call on his former comrades-in-arms to resume the battle. This intense adventure isn't for the faint of heart, but it will satisfy horror fans who crave gore along with unremitting dread. |
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Universal Harvester
by John Darnielle
In this intricate, disturbing novel, small town Iowa reveals its darker side when video store customers start complaining about creepy footage spliced into their VHS rentals (it's the late 1990s). Jeremy Heldt, working the counter while he waits for something better to come along, reluctantly starts looking into the footage, which draws him into a local, decades-old story of tragedy and loss. But plot isn't the important thing about Universal Harvester -- you'll want to read it for its strong sense of place, its compelling turns of phrase (author John Darnielle is a singer/songwriter), its menacing atmosphere, and for the way it explores the emotional consequences of loss.
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| The Burning World: A Novel by Isaac MarionAuthor Isaac Marion's Warm Bodies zombie series continues in The Burning World, where sentient zombie R and his living girlfriend Julie, along with several undead and living friends, flee a violent anti-zombie militia called Axiom. R, who was revived at the beginning of the series, pieces together his past as he and Julie work frantically to discover what's behind the zombie apocalypse. If this is the first book of the series you've picked up, you can still enjoy R and Julie's love story in the face of death and danger -- but you'll probably want to read the earlier novels as you wait for the planned next installment. |
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All Darling Children
by Katrina Monroe "Monroe (A Tale Du Mort) turns Neverland into a frightening, violent place in this tense extension of J.M. Barrie’s classic, Peter Pan." Publishers Weekly. On the tenth anniversary of her mother's death, fourteen-year-old Madge Darling’s grandmother suffers a heart attack. With the overbearing Grandma Wendy in the hospital, Madge runs away to Chicago, intent on tracking down a woman she believes is actually her mother. On her way to the Windy City, a boy named Peter Pan lures Madge to Neverland, a magical place where children can remain young forever. While Pan plays puppet master in a twisted game only he understands, Madge discovers the disturbing price of Peter Pan's eternal youth.
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| The Undesired: A Thriller by Yrsa Sigurdardóttir; translated by Victoria CribbIn Icelandic author Yrsa Sirgurdardóttir's The Undesired, investigator Ódinn Hafteinsson takes over a cold case involving boys from a home for delinquents who died in the 1970s. Their deaths connect unexpectedly to a present-day crime -- and raise the possibility that Ódinn's dead wife Lára is seeking revenge for her murder. This "slow-burning, bone-chilling tale" (Kirkus Reviews) presents a ghost story in the guise of a twisting, creepy thriller. For another haunting supernatural mystery involving the unexplained deaths of children, try Catriona McPherson's The Child Garden. |
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| The Suicide Motor Club by Christopher BuehlmanIn an endless undead road trip, vampires roam American highways in their souped-up muscle cars, leaving behind wrecked autos and dead bodies as they abduct fresh prey. They leave no witnesses -- except for one woman who vows to exact vengeance for her husband's death and son's abduction. The Suicide Motor Club traces the bereaved Judith Lamb's odyssey of revenge in this intricately plotted and inventive twist on vampire lore that is "gripping the whole way through" (Publishers Weekly). |
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| NOS4A2: A Novel by Joe HillDriving a 1938 Rolls Royce Wraith that sports the license plate NOS4A2, Charles Talent Manx abducts children and spirits them away to Christmasland, the creepiest place in this world or any other. Over the years, Manx adds numerous youngsters to his macabre collection -- with the notable exception of Victoria "Vic" McQueen, whose unusual powers enable her to escape his clutches. Years later, Manx kidnaps Vic's young son, forcing her to face her childhood nightmares in order to save her child's life. |
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| Odd Apocalypse by Dean KoontzAfter the lethal clash recounted in Odd Hours, short-order cook Odd Thomas and his companion Annamaria have taken refuge in an opulent California estate called Roseland. Though he's grateful for the respite from his flight, Odd soon realizes that Roseland conceals evil secrets that could prove to be as deadly as any he's met before. In Odd Apocalypse he must embark on a quest for justice on behalf of the dead and the living. This 5th book in the series balances Odd's trademark wisecracks and insightful musings with terrifying apparitions -- and worse! |
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