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Disappearance at Devil's Rock

A Novel

ebook
7 of 7 copies available
7 of 7 copies available

From Paul Tremblay, the author of A Head Full of Ghosts, comes a contemporary psychological suspense concerning a family shaken to its core after the mysterious disappearance of a teenage boy.

"A Head Full of Ghosts scared the living hell out of me, and I'm pretty hard to scare," raved Stephen King about Paul Tremblay's previous novel. Now, Tremblay returns with another disturbing tale sure to unsettle readers.

Late one summer night, Elizabeth Sanderson receives the devastating news that every mother fears: her thirteen-year-old son, Tommy, has vanished without a trace in the woods of a local park.

The search isn't yielding any answers, and Elizabeth and her young daughter, Kate, struggle to comprehend Tommy's disappearance. Feeling helpless and alone, their sorrow is compounded by anger and frustration: the local and state police have uncovered no leads. Josh and Luis, the friends who were the last to see Tommy before he vanished, may not be telling the whole truth about that night in Borderland State Park, when they were supposedly hanging out a landmark the local teens have renamed Devil's Rock.

Living in an all-too-real nightmare, riddled with worry, pain, and guilt, Elizabeth is wholly unprepared for the strange series of events that follow. She believes a ghostly shadow of Tommy materializes in her bedroom, while Kate and other local residents claim to see a shadow peering through their windows in the dead of night. Then, random pages torn from Tommy's journal begin to mysteriously appear—entries that reveal an introverted teenager obsessed with the phantasmagoric; the loss of his father, killed in a drunk-driving accident a decade earlier; a folktale involving the devil and the woods of Borderland; and a horrific incident that Tommy believed connects them.

As the search grows more desperate, and the implications of what happened become more haunting and sinister, no one is prepared for the shocking truth about that night and Tommy's disappearance at Devil's Rock.

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    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from April 18, 2016
      Intense emotions of fear and alienation carve direct paths to the supernatural in this tightly plotted and atmospheric novel. Young Tommy’s disappearance in Borderland State Park, Mass., near haunted Devil’s Rock, throws his mother, Elizabeth Sanderson, into a maelstrom of guilt. Townsfolk start seeing shadows at their windows, and Tommy’s friends Josh and Luis grow anxious, reluctant to discuss the night when he vanished. Meanwhile, Elizabeth encounters Tommy’s ghost in her bedroom and receives mysterious notebook pages that reveal sinister connections among Tommy’s father’s death, a stranger named Arnold who Tommy met at Devil’s Rock, and a macabre folk tale. Tremblay (A Head Full of Ghosts) uses concise prose and smooth storytelling to evoke raw emotion in this tale of love, loss, and terror. Sympathetic characters and heartbreaking struggles replace genre stereotypes and tropes. The menacing atmosphere captures small-town isolation and hopelessness. This stunning and tantalizing work of suggestive horror is sure to please admirers of Stephen King and Peter Straub. Agent: Stephen Barbara, Inkwell Literary Management.

    • Library Journal

      February 1, 2016

      Elizabeth Sanderson is shattered when teenaged son Tommy disappears in Borderland State Park. What happens next is even more confounding: pages torn from his journal suddenly materialize, showing that Tommy knew about a folktale involving the devil and Borderland's woods. From the multiple Bram Stoker Award finalist; with a 50,000-copy first printing.

      Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • Library Journal

      April 15, 2016

      Thirteen-year-old Tommy Sanderson has vanished in a park near a large boulder named Split Rock, although an obscure local legend refers to it as Devil's Rock. Tommy, along with his two best friends, Luis and Josh, were together at Josh's house when they snuck out to the woods. Kate, Tommy's younger sister, tries to help her mother, Elizabeth, cope; Elizabeth is puzzled by the vision of Tommy that she experienced the night he went missing. Adding to the mystery are pages from Tommy's diary that suddenly surface, revealing his obsession with the occult. VERDICT The title may sound like a "Hardy Boys" novel, but this ain't no Franklin W. Dixon story. Multiple Bram Stoker Award finalist Tremblay (A Head Full of Ghosts) succeeds brilliantly at scaring his audience in this latest novel. The characters are well drawn and believable, and the conversations among Tommy and his friends, recounted in journal excerpts and flashbacks, render authentic teenspeak. Recommended for fans of the author, Peter Straub, and Adam Nevill. [See Prepub Alert, 1/4/16.]--Jason L. Steagall, Gateway Technical Coll. Lib., Elkhorn, WI

      Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • Library Journal

      June 1, 2017

      Beware the ringing phone in the middle of the night. Elizabeth, single mother of two, enters her worst nightmare when she answers a call and learns that her teenage son, Tommy, is missing. What secrets does Devil's Rock hold, and who (or what) took the boy away in the middle of the night? VERDICT An enticing supernatural story that will fill readers with trepidation as they wait to discover what happened to Tommy. (LJ 4/15/16)

      Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

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