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)