Editorial Content for Disappearance at Devil's Rock
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
What makes a scary story? Vampires and ghouls? Zombies and demons? Or the real dangers of the world, like war, torture and murder? Paul Tremblay’s latest novel, DISAPPEARANCE AT DEVIL’S ROCK, examines the terrifying disappearance of a child and adds the kind of monster that really walks among us.
Thirteen-year-old Tommy Sanderson is, by all accounts, a normal boy. He has spent most of the summer with his two best friends, Josh and Luis, playing Minecraft and riding bikes. Late one night, his mother, Elizabeth, receives a frantic call from the boys telling her that they “lost” Tommy in the woods and have no idea where he is or why he ran off. So begins a long search for Tommy, starting at the place most people know as Split Rock but that comes to be called Devil’s Rock as, in the coming weeks, a dark legend grows around Tommy and why he is gone.
As Elizabeth, her 11-year-old daughter, Katie, and her mother, Janice, assist in the investigation and search, they are tormented not only by what Tommy’s disappearance could mean, but by the thought that a supernatural element might be involved. Are Elizabeth’s visions of Tommy real or just a product of her fear? Are the journal pages she finds being left by Tommy? If so, how? Or is there someone messing with her mind and emotions?
"This novel is a page-turner; chilling, unnerving and psychologically rich, it will keep readers guessing and entertained."
Tremblay gives readers the perspective of the boys in parallel with that of Tommy’s family, and so a new story, just as frightening, emerges. Earlier in the summer, the boys met a young man named Arnold (Joyce Carol Oates fans will enjoy the reference) who charms them with “hobo coins” and plies them with beer. He is strange but seems to understand the boys, giving them his undivided attention. Tommy especially succumbs to Arnold’s ideas and suggestions. Eventually he leads the children toward a horrific moment of violence and insanity that results in Tommy’s disappearance and the ensuing trauma. The narrative of the relationship among the friends and Arnold, and the events leading up to Tommy’s running off into the woods, is just as scary, dark and suspenseful as the aftermath when the boys try to hide their terrible secret. Tremblay intertwines and balances the two sides of the story deftly.
DISAPPEARANCE AT DEVIL’S ROCK is a scary story: tense and creepy, blending a brutal realism with more than a mere suggestion of the supernatural. The evils at play here are varied --- some fantastically sinister, others sadly mundane --- and Tremblay does a great job letting readers sort them out. Most of all, however, this is a story about grief: the grief that Tommy has carried with him, and the grief that Elizabeth feels after he goes missing. It is this grief that invites and creates the monsters that prey on the lonely, the sad and the uncertain. This novel is a page-turner; chilling, unnerving and psychologically rich, it will keep readers guessing and entertained.
Teaser
Elizabeth Sanderson receives the devastating news that her 13-year-old son, Tommy, has vanished without a trace. Josh and Luis, the friends who were the last to see Tommy before he disappeared, may not be telling the whole truth about that night in Borderland State Park, when they were supposedly hanging out at a landmark the local teens have renamed Devil’s Rock. Living in an all-too-real nightmare, 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 and Tommy’s disappearance at Devil’s Rock.
Promo
Elizabeth Sanderson receives the devastating news that her 13-year-old son, Tommy, has vanished without a trace. Josh and Luis, the friends who were the last to see Tommy before he disappeared, may not be telling the whole truth about that night in Borderland State Park, when they were supposedly hanging out at a landmark the local teens have renamed Devil’s Rock. Living in an all-too-real nightmare, 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 and Tommy’s disappearance at Devil’s Rock.
About the Book
A family is shaken to its core after the mysterious disappearance of a teenage boy in this eerie tale, a blend of literary fiction, psychological suspense and supernatural horror from the author of A HEAD FULL OF GHOSTS.
“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 13-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.
Audiobook available, performed by Erin Bennett
