Something is very wrong in the small town of Smiths Hollow, and has been for a very long time. But, the townspeople don't seem to know it... which is strange, because, every year, a teenage girl goes missing, and days later, her mutilated body is discovered in the woods. That is, until the summer Lauren's father goes missing, and is found beneath the Ghost Tree, a lightning-struck tree which looms over the town like a sinister watchman, with his heart cut out of his chest.
The town is populated with strange characters: from the vicious Mrs. Schneider, who can scarcely remember that she and her husband, too, experienced tragedy - to her next-door neighbors, transplants from Chicago, one of whom is now one of the five police officers in the town, a man with secrets of his own, especially concerning the lack of investigation regarding the murder of all the girls, whom no one in the town seems to remember even existed - to the dreamy Jake, a college student whom Lauren secretly has a crush on - to the apathetic police officers in the town, who don't seem to care much that teenage girls are found torn apart every year, on their watch, right under their noses - to Lauren's grandmother, who lives in an old house on the hill which is reported to be haunted - to her own brother, a serious little kid for a four-year-old, who seems to know things about the murdered girls... things he can't know at his age.... to the mayor, a childless minder who believes that he is ultimately responsible for everything that happens, including the town's economic future, and who harbors a terrible secret that no one seems to know, that he will stop at nothing to protect, and perpetuate.
This capable horror novel - and it definitely is such, because of the descriptions of the mutilated teenage girls, so it's probably not for everybody - is definitely influenced by other works I've read, most notable, Shirley Jackson's immortal "The Lottery," where a rural community engages in a human sacrifice ritual every year, a throwback to the town's pagan past, intended to ensure fertility and a good harvest. The story behind the sacrifice in Smiths Hollow, which similarly employs a lottery, but here, solely of young girls, ala "Dragonslayer," is to keep an inhuman monster at bay.
Its roots are more sinister and supernatural: more than a century ago, three witches, who inhabited the house Lauren's grandmother now resides in, a grandmother, mother and daughter, invest their energies in procuring their legacy, which goes awry, and results in the murder of the daughter and her unborn baby. The remaining two witches exact a terrible curse upon the town, one which demands the sacrifice of their own, the blood to be paid, for the death of Elizabeth and her unborn daughter, at the hands of a greedy industrialist. The rest of the novel is part "Silver Bullet," part "Hunger Games," but it weaves the elements together into an engaging and eerie narrative that made it hard to put down. Without any more spoilers, this creative novel will definitely have you on the edge of your seat, but beware of reading it if you're squeamish.
The town is populated with strange characters: from the vicious Mrs. Schneider, who can scarcely remember that she and her husband, too, experienced tragedy - to her next-door neighbors, transplants from Chicago, one of whom is now one of the five police officers in the town, a man with secrets of his own, especially concerning the lack of investigation regarding the murder of all the girls, whom no one in the town seems to remember even existed - to the dreamy Jake, a college student whom Lauren secretly has a crush on - to the apathetic police officers in the town, who don't seem to care much that teenage girls are found torn apart every year, on their watch, right under their noses - to Lauren's grandmother, who lives in an old house on the hill which is reported to be haunted - to her own brother, a serious little kid for a four-year-old, who seems to know things about the murdered girls... things he can't know at his age.... to the mayor, a childless minder who believes that he is ultimately responsible for everything that happens, including the town's economic future, and who harbors a terrible secret that no one seems to know, that he will stop at nothing to protect, and perpetuate.
This capable horror novel - and it definitely is such, because of the descriptions of the mutilated teenage girls, so it's probably not for everybody - is definitely influenced by other works I've read, most notable, Shirley Jackson's immortal "The Lottery," where a rural community engages in a human sacrifice ritual every year, a throwback to the town's pagan past, intended to ensure fertility and a good harvest. The story behind the sacrifice in Smiths Hollow, which similarly employs a lottery, but here, solely of young girls, ala "Dragonslayer," is to keep an inhuman monster at bay.
Its roots are more sinister and supernatural: more than a century ago, three witches, who inhabited the house Lauren's grandmother now resides in, a grandmother, mother and daughter, invest their energies in procuring their legacy, which goes awry, and results in the murder of the daughter and her unborn baby. The remaining two witches exact a terrible curse upon the town, one which demands the sacrifice of their own, the blood to be paid, for the death of Elizabeth and her unborn daughter, at the hands of a greedy industrialist. The rest of the novel is part "Silver Bullet," part "Hunger Games," but it weaves the elements together into an engaging and eerie narrative that made it hard to put down. Without any more spoilers, this creative novel will definitely have you on the edge of your seat, but beware of reading it if you're squeamish.
