#Titanuary #BookReview ‘Disappearance At Devil’s Rock’ by Paul Tremblay

About the book…

Late one summer night, Elizabeth Sanderson receives the devastating news that every mother fears: her 13-year-old son, Tommy, has vanished in the woods of a local park. Riddled with worry, pain, and guilt, Elizabeth is wholly unprepared for the strange series of events that follow. 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.

Published by Titan in 2016, ‘Disappearance At Devil’s Rock’ is a tour de force of a novel which cements, in this reader’s mind, Paul Tremblay as one of the freshest, most original voices working in horror today.

I remember reading it in almost a fugue state of other worldliness as the personal becomes public in the hunt for what happened to Tommy. Fault, guilt and blame are all lobbied at various individuals, and the lack of a concrete solution to this situation all meld into each other as a supernatural element sidles in to view.

Creepy, disconcerting and thoroughly brilliant, you find yourself catching your breath as Elizabeth uncovers uncomfortable truths about her son through his diaries and drawings, and desperately tries to make sense out of the impossible.

The longing to be part of something, whilst forever being branded an outsider, is examined form the perspective of a boy within a family unit, a boy growing into an adult and finding his place both in, and outside his sphere of existence, as well as a family in crisis viewed by society at large.

This Russian doll aspect of the tale, and the sociological constraints of small town life, are some of Paul’s best motifs and this really is a superlative story of supernatural horror.

Beautiful,wrought and tense with emotion,I did not realise I was holding my breath till I closed the book. It was astonishing and as good as his first book,’‘A Head Full Of Ghosts’‘. Please read them both.

He also has a stunning short story collection, containing both new, and old, stories called ‘Growing Things And Other Stories’ which I thoroughly recommend.

Look out for Paul’s forthcoming novel from Titan, due in May, called ‘‘Survivor Song’. It’s a dystopian thriller and a race against time in a world on the edge of oblivion and I for one cannot wait!

About the author…

Paul Tremblay is the author of ‘Disappearance At Devil’s Rock’ and the award-winning ‘A Head Full Of Ghosts’. His other novels include ‘The Little Sleep’ (Henry Holt), ‘No Sleep Till Wonderland’ (Henry Holt), ‘Swallowing A Donkey’s Eye’ (Chizine Publications), and the YA novel ‘Floating Boy And The Girl Who Couldn’t Fly’ (co-written with Stephen Graham Jones, as P. T. Jones).

He is the author of the short story collections ‘Compositions For The Young And Old’(Prime) and ‘In The Mean Time’(Chizine Publications). His essays and short fiction have appeared in the Los Angeles Times and numerous year’s best anthologies. He is the co-editor of four anthologies including ‘Creatures:Thirty Years Of Monsters’(with John Langan). Paul is a member of the board of directors for the Shirley Jackson Awards. He lives outside of Boston, Massachusetts, has a master’s degree in Mathematics, and has no uvula. You can find him online at www.paultremblay.net.

Paul is very truthful and declarative in his bios. He once gained three inches of height in a single twelve hour period, and he does not have a uvula. His second toe is longer than his big toe, and yes, on both feet. He has a master’s degree in mathematics, teaches AP Calculus, and once made twenty-seven three pointers in a row. He enjoys reading The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher aloud in a faux-British accent to his two children. He is also reading this bio aloud, now, with the same accent. He lives outside of Boston, Massachusetts and he is represented by Stephen Barbara, InkWell Management

Twitter @TitanBooks @paulGTremblay