About the book…
Willow is in need of an escape.
A former sitcom star, she’s been publicly shamed on the internet after posting something she really shouldn’t have.
She checks in to Camp Castaway, an adults-only retreat based at an old campground in the woods.
It’s the first night and the campers gather round the fire to tell some ghost stories. That’s when Willow hears the tale of Knock Knock Nancy. A local urban legend about a witch, brutally beheaded in this very woodland.
They say her restless spirit knocks on doors late at night. If you answer, she’ll take your head.
Willow doesn’t believe in ghost stories. But the next day, a camper has vanished under mysterious circumstances. And then that evening, in her cabin, Willow hears it…
Knock, Knock, Knock.
Josh Winning is for me, a must buy author. After completely falling in love with his debut novel, ‘The Shadow Glass’ it was a no brainer to get ‘Heads Will Roll’which was published last week in the UK , by Michael Joseph Books in hardcover and e-book formats.
It’s a homage to the slasher genre which takes a long hard look at the impact of social media, cancel culture and the nature of dependency on validation via mobile phone.
This includes texting, filtering of images, ‘likes’ , ‘shares’ and ‘brand awareness’, so when actress Willow, unwittingly implodes her personal and professional life with a careless tweet, the fall from grace is so swift it makes your nose bleed.
Co-dependency on an audience which increasingly feels like it is waiting in the wings to pounce and vilify has created an out of control narrative where truth matters less than hashtags and views has left Willow with no home, no friends and an engagement ring that mockingly winks at her whilst her fiancé has run as far away as he can.
Her last best hope is to run away to the middle of nowhere , surrender herself to the process of healing and to put that damn phone down!!
But…this might be a case of from frying pan to fire as things in the camp don’t quite add up…mix in an urban legend about an axe wielding killer forever looking for her missing head, and you have quite the situation.
Is it the camp therapist, the camp owner, a fellow camper or none of the above behind the spooky knocks, the lovingly left ‘presents’ or mysteriously disappearing campers. First there were 8…then , there were not…
It could be a novel which comes across as preachy, or at the other extreme, Scooby Doo in the woods, however, this is a tale of false narratives where the truth matters less than how you can exploit lies.
It is genuinely jumpy, isolating you in paradoxically wide open woods away from any social contact so that you can essentially ‘reboot’. But in order to find yourself, sometimes you have to lose absolutely everything. How far will Willow go to get back to who she was before fame and fortune got in the way?
And how far do we readers buy into the ‘need to know’ without really having the right to know? I was deeply intrigued to find out exactly what Willow said, but does that really matter and what does that change?
Living in a post truth world where everyone has a perspective, but lack of accountability on sharing, this is a rampant charge for taking people down(see the recent riots in England for example as a comparative issue) .
You can see how the slasher trope is perfect for this exploration of what exactly is trying to remove the head of a rumour, which, as you cut it off, is like a Hydra in growing more, and more, and more…who amongst us will restore justice with a swift chop or two?
Fast, fun, with interspersed posts/emails/commentary from the outside world, staying in Camp Castaway is the best way to spend time those long summer nights!
About the author…
Josh Winning is a nostalgia nut, book/film lover and author of The Shadow Glass, which is perfect for fans of Henson Company classics like Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal, and The NeverEnding Story.
He is senior film writer at Radio Times, contributing editor at Total Film magazine, writer at SFX and Den of Geek, and the co-host of movie podcast Torn Stubs. He has been on set with Kermit the Frog (and Miss Piggy), devoured breakfast with zombies on The Walking Dead, and sat on the Iron Throne on the Dublin set of Game of Thrones.
Josh lives in London with his cat Penny and dreams of one day convincing Sigourney Weaver to yell “Goddammit!” at him.
Links-http://www.joshuawinning.com/
Twitter @JoshWinning @MichaelJBooks
Author
bridgeman.lenny@gmail.com