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Author: Heather Brewer
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Paranormal, Thriller
Released: March 30, 2015
Review Source: Harper Collins
When Stephen is forced to move back to the nowhere town where his father grew up, he’s already sure he’s not going to like it. Spencer, Michigan, is like a town straight out of a Hitchcock movie, with old-fashioned people who see things only in black-and-white. But things start looking up when Stephen meets the mysterious twins Cara and Devon. They’re total punks–hardly the kind of people Stephen’s dad wants him hanging out with–but they’re a breath of fresh air in this backward town. The only problem is, Cara and Devon don’t always get along, and as Stephen forms a friendship with the charismatic Devon and something more with the troubled Cara, he starts to feel like he’s getting caught in the middle of a conflict he doesn’t fully understand. And as Devon’s group of friends, who hang out in a cemetery they call The Playground, get up to increasingly reckless activities to pass the summer days, Stephen worries he may be in over his head. Stephen’s fears prove well-founded when he learns of Spencer’s dark past. It seems the poor factory town has a history of “bad times,” and many of the town’s oldest residents attribute the bad times to creatures right out of an urban legend. The legend goes that the only way the town will prosper again is if someone makes a sacrifice to these nightmarish creatures. And while Stephen isn’t one to believe in old stories, it seems Devon and his gang might put a lot of faith in them. Maybe even enough to kill for them. Now, Stephen has to decide what he believes, where his allegiances lie, and who will really be his friend in the end.
Yeah...Did that just happen??? I think it really did. Heather Brewer brings pure horror and darkness to the pages of a young adult novel. Here name is on many novels on the shelf of my oldest, however, this is first Brewer read for me and horror at that, which isn’t something that is always on the top of my list to read. However, I was brave enough to give it a try. Thankgoodness I was not disappointed at all. The beginning was a slower pace than I normally like to engage in, however it quickly started moving with twists, events, and secrets. Really just about a little bit of everything in an horror showered with mystery.
Stephen. Poor Stephen. Faced with moving to a new town. Forced to move in with a grandmother, who seriously doesn’t appear to like him. Forced to make new friends. The only constant in his life is his father. As Stephen begins to make friends, those friendships begin to change. Weird things are beginning to happen and somehow Stephen is caught in the middle. There is a little love interest between Stephen and his new friend Cara, however this is so minor compared to the dark story elements that truly build throughout the novel. Told from Stephen’s point of view, Brewer’s written expression and character development is very evident throughout the novel. She even talks a little bit about author Stephen King, in her acknowledgement pages. It comes to know surprise. If you like darkness and horror when you read and above all, the unexpected, this is one title not to miss.
Heather Brewer grew up on a diet of Twilight Zone and books by Stephen King. She chased them down with every drop of horror she could find—in books, movie theaters, on television. The most delicious parts of her banquet, however, she found lurking in the shadowed corners of her dark imagination. When she’s not writing books, she’s skittering down your wall and lurking underneath your bed. Heather doesn’t believe in happy endings . . . unless they involve blood. She lives in Missouri with her husband and two children.
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