It is that time again.
Recommend to me — us, because a whole lot of folks are reading this blog — a book.
It can be a book that’s been out.
Or a book that’s coming out soon.
Any genre. Any variant of publishing.
Tell us what it is, who it’s by, and why you recommend it.
Just. One. Book.
Not yours.
Not ten books.
A book.
Now, before I dart off, I’ll make a recommendation to you.
THE THREE, by Sarah Lotz.
“Lotz is a ferociously imaginative storyteller whose twisty plots will kick the stairs out from under you. She’s a talent to watch.”—Lauren Beukes, author of The Shining Girls
“The Three is really wonderful, a mix of Michael Crichton and Shirley Jackson. Hard to put down and vastly entertaining.”—Stephen King
Four plane crashes happen simultaneously around the world. Appearing to have different causes entirely. And yet, in three of those accidents — and maybe, just maybe in the fourth, too — one child survived the devastation. I really don’t want to give away too much more than that, but from there unfolds one of the finest, freakiest horror novels put to paper. It’s told as artifacts — documents compiled and found — and offers a world real enough (and fragile enough) to feel like our own. That’s in fact what makes this book so terrifying, to me: the fact that you can read it and despite hints of the supernatural, it feels like oh, shit, if this happened, this is how it would unfold. All of life, a big-ass Jenga tower waiting to come down.
See, for me, the best horror isn’t just about the scares. It isn’t really about the horror.
It’s about the dread that follows in its wake. And this has that ten times over.
It also has one of the more harrowing descriptions of a plane crash.
Which I read while sitting on a plane, soooooo. Oops.
(And come to think of it, I hop on a plane tonight, too. MAYBE I’LL RE-READ IT.)
My only small issue with the book — and it’s a non-issue, mostly, in that it remains effective, if jarring — is the shift for the last part of the book away from the artifacts and into straight prose. The prose there is excellent and does the job it needs to do, but after over 3/4 of the book being told in one fashion, the hard shift is keenly felt.
Either way.
Go.
Get it.
This will be a huge bestseller, I predict.
Amazon | B&N | Indiebound
M T McGuire says:
Alloria, by David Staniforth. Brilliant book with a very C S Lewes (Narnia) style vibe. Thoroughly recommend it.
Cheers
MTM
May 24, 2014 — 5:46 PM
pamelacreese says:
Late to the game, a bit but I would highly recommend Jeannine Garsee’s YA paranormal “The Unquiet”…
Lisa McMann, NYTs bestselling author of The Wake trilogy called it “A swirling, marvelous journey into madness…or out of it. You decide.”
“Filled with romance, madness, and dangerous ghosts, The Unquiet is a haunting read you shouldn’t miss.” —Melissa Marr, New York Times bestselling author of the Wicked Lovely series
Garsee plays on our worst psychological insecurities in this eerie depiction….The authentic setting and breezy teenage repartee make the pool deaths, the bizarre parent personality changes, and the bully revenge even spookier. The Unquiet is a paranormal page-turner that will leave readers guessing as to what’s real and what’s imaginary, even after they close the book for the final time. —Booklist
I love this book (and I rarely read YA). The heroine is unexpected, the book is filled with great characterization. If you love paranormal, psych thrillers, or YA… this is one book I MUST recommend.
May 24, 2014 — 9:35 PM
Gabriel says:
Hi there,
I want to recommend a collection of short stories, Pops and Clicks by Matthew Allard. He’s an author/publisher out of L.A. a while back, he just started following me on tumblr.
So I checked out his page and saw he was a writer, he also does some publishing. Anyway, Last year he was doing a cool subscription series. He would release a short story a month that he would publish and bind himself by hand.
I signed up for the.subscription and loved the series. That series turned into this collection of short stories. He’s a great writer and these are sweet stories with some wonderful characters. My favorite is the opening story of.the collection, ” when we are giraffes” I suggest you check him out. He also.posts fantastic pictures.on instagram under the name lifeserial.
Here’s his website.
http://www.matthewallard.com
May 25, 2014 — 2:46 PM
Jeff Rutherford says:
HARD CITY by Clark Howard. Not the personal-finance guru Clark Howard. The multiple-award winning mystery writer.
“Howard’s 19th book is a tour de force.” Library Journal
Hard City was Howard’s most personal novel. The semi-autobiographical novel features Richie, a young boy from a troubled family, who lives on the streets of 1940s Chicago at age 12 while sleeping in a bowling alley every night. Eventually, Richie’s love of reading is key to Richie’s surviving, and eventually leaving, the street life.
Writing about Hard City in a new Author’s Preface for the publication of Hard City as an ebook, Howard writes, “Because much of it is based on my life as a wayward boy on the mean streets of Chicago’s lower West Side, a life frequently fueled by truancy, petty thievery, gang membership, and other disreputable behavior, I had, as a respectable adult, left those bleak days far behind and buried them deep in my memory. The things I had done back then, the life I had experienced, as well as vivid recollections of my mother’s drug addiction and my father’s incarceration in federal prison and subsequent disappearance, had all melded together into some dark recess of my mind and, I thought, been locked away forever.”
The ebook is available on all major eBook stores – Nook, Kindle, Kobo, and iBooks.
http://www.amazon.com/Hard-City-Clark-Howard-ebook/dp/B004ZH8DYO
May 31, 2014 — 9:03 AM