Synopsis
Maverick Hall has spent years trying to forget the chilling events of his thirteenth birthday in the summer of 1999. That fateful night, he and his best friends ventured through a seemingly innocuous tunnel on their bikes — a journey from which not all of them returned.
Now, as an adult, Maverick is haunted by a sinister force that compels him to return to his old neighborhood, a place shadowed by secrets, deceit, and an unsettling sense of death. Drawn back against his better judgment, he must face the dark forces that have lurked in waiting, eager for his return. As Maverick confronts the shadows of his past, he finds himself entangled in a web of mystery that threatens not only his sanity but his very survival.
This harrowing tale of memory, fear, and the power of the unseen delves deep into the heart of a nightmare that refuses to be forgotten, beckoning Maverick to resolve the terrifying mystery that has haunted him for decades.
Review
If you want more, check out my review for It Haunts the Mind
I grabbed one of the numbered and signed editions, and the art of the alt-cover is great.
A novella that was previously released in segments to the author’s patreon, this ended up being a pretty well done and tight-knit story given the fact that it was done without a full write and edit first.
Mav’s thirteenth birthday is tomorrow. He’s excited for a night of pizza, cake, and horror VHS movies with his best friends Max and Blake. Unfortunately, it ends up being anything but a normal birthday. They do say the change from child to true teenager can be rocky, but I don’t think this is what they had in mind. When Max suggests a late night ride to the local gas station for some right-of-passage beer and smokes, the crew is thrust into a supernatural, decades spanning spiral as not all of them make it through their town’s creepy tunnel.
I feel like this read like experience. I hope for Roberts sake that experience doesn’t include a presence in a tunnel obviously, but the minute details of the story carried weight. Summer 1999, the teen boys with their bikes and riding the night away, mentions of the Y2K scare, the VHS movies, as well as the films of choice, all felt like a snapshot bordering on the personal. And that of course made it all the more believable. While for me in 1999 I was probably still on Disney VHS movies, I feel like I was the true last generation of biking and disappearing into the neighborhood with friends, so there were nostalgic notes to this for me as well.
I really enjoyed the choice of integrating the story with the future. Mav is not only still stuck on the event decades later, but he’s actually recalling the story for us now. That tells the reader right from the jump that things are serious, and that that night wasn’t just some freak event. After burying it for years, it has resurfaced in his dreams like some demonic PTSD. The chapter’s starting with this sort of bleak future for Mav, as well as the first person POV, really sold it for me.
I recall at one point having to put the book down while getting toward the build up and thinking “man, this guy really knows how to write a story.” I handled my business for the day and made sure to finish it that night. It builds to the reader finally discovering the entirety of what happened in 1999, which is quite a climax in itself, however the reader knows that Mav is telling the story from years later. What you get is almost two full back-to-back finales, both with different things happening, and I thought they were equally as thrilling.
Quick, intense violence, and a wicked twist ending. And love all the horror references.
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