AustLit

'Natasha stalks the quiet streets of dead-end Lunar Bay like doom in a denim jacket. She's a grim reminder that some teenagers can never escape the ever-tightening noose of their lives. Burned out and benumbed by a traumatic past, dogged by scurrilous small-town gossip, she finds solace in drugs, sex and Slayer.

'What horrors have her flat eyes witnessed? And how far will she go in pursuit of the one tiny spark of hope that still flickers in her haunted heart?

'When a naïve transplant crosses her path, he's drawn into shadow and doubt. With his girlfriend ghosting him, Natasha's fresh introduction to her half-lit world is darkly appealing. Now faced with confusing quandaries-connection or convenience, relationship or exploitation-can he help any of the women in his life? Or is he just helping himself?

'The untold tragedies of Natasha's lonely life may be more than he can handle. And in a town whose history is littered with dead girls, there may be no happy ending for anyone.

'A tar-black coming of age story, this gritty psychological thriller from Shirley Jackson Award-nominated author Matthew R. Davis, eloquently chronicles the crushing gravity of small-town hopelessness, the double-edged catharsis of sex, drugs, and heavy metal, and the brutal weight of youth's first lessons in accountability' (Publication summary)

'THE MAN: Jonny Trotter has spent the last fifteen years running from tragic memories of the country town where he grew up—but the black envelopes pushed under his door won’t let him forget, and now that his father has died, he can run no more.

'THE TOWN: Returning to Waterwich for the funeral and wake with his partner Sloane, Jonny must confront old resentments, his estranged best friends Brendan and Coralie, a strange, veiled woman the locals call the White Widow…and the mystery surrounding the fate of his first lover, Jessica Grzelak.

'THE GIRL: A morbid and reckless city girl banished to the country to live with her aunt, Jessica loved to push the limits and explore the shadows—and no one has seen her since the night of her high school formal, the night she and Jonny went looking for the Chapel.

'THE CHAPEL: Rumored to be found in the woods outside Waterwich, mentioned in playground rhymes about local lovebirds Billy and Poppy and their killing spree in 1964, the Chapel is said to be an ancient, sacred place that can only be entered by lovers—a test that can only be passed if their bond is pure and true.

'THE TRUTH: Before he can move on to a future with Sloane, Jonny must first face the terrible truth of his past—and if he can’t bring it out into the light at last, it might just pull him and everything he loves down into the dark forever.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'In 1971, the wicked cult of science-sorceress Thelma O’Therion vanished from Oddfellows Observatory – and rumour is that the place has been growing ever since. Now, in the name of love, stoner-metal singer Terrance will discover the madness that lies within its walls – a terror transcending time, space, and sanity itself...'

Source: Publisher's blurb.