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 … 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 thirteen-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.
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Made me look for more books by this writer since this was the first book I had read by him
Tommy’s disappeared and 3 families are involved in his finding. The story progresses mostly in real time. The 2 boys are typical, believable, frustratingly real. The side plots move the action.
good building of suspense. Eerie.
I haven’t even finished it yet but wanted to say this is a great, scary book. Can’t put it down.
If you want to read a scary book, read anything by Tremblay. He’s also a great writer, master of plot, also writes great characters & dialogue
This is the creepy, chilling story of the disappearance of Tommy Sanderson. I laughed, I cried, and I definitely got the chills while reading this story. After learning of her son’s disappearance, Elizabeth wants to believe her son is alive but then things start happening to her and her daughter, Kate. Some of the things that happen just simply cannot be explained and others were due to her daughter’s influence and the influence of Arnold. As the story goes on, the story of Tommy’s last summer begins to reveal itself. He and his friends make mistakes, become part of a horrible incident, and befriend a stranger. All of which leads to a horrible tragedy, times two. The ending nicely tied up the story and left me aching for Elizabeth and Kate.
Disappearance at Devil’s Rock had me twisted around its little finger right up until the last two chapters. Then I was saddened by the fact that it was over.
Elizabeth gets that dreaded middle of the night call from one of her son’s friend’s asking if her son was home. Of course, he wasn’t and so begins the masterful telling of this taut, mystery thriller. Where was Tommy? He ran into the woods, but to where? Why are there so many reports of “shadowmen” in their small town of Ames? Are they related to Tommy’s disappearance? What about Tommy’s diary pages that show up in the middle of the floor during the night?
I can’t say anything more about the plot, but I can say more about the writing. This book flowed easily, the smooth writing carried me along, even when I wanted to start dragging my feet to make the experience last a little longer. I only had one issue with this book that left me briefly disappointed, and that was that (view spoiler)
Disappearance at Devil’s Rock was a pleasing, quick read, with a flowing writing style that flies right along until all the secrets concealed within are revealed. Trust me, you want to be there when that happens.
Highly recommended to fans of mystery thrillers!
*Thank you to Edelweiss and to William Morrow for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.*
A disappearance of a teenager. Eerie, unsettling, and devastating.
I read a headful of ghosts and loved it. I found devils rock very disappointing.
The best parts of this book- are certain strange events supernatural or not? – are similar to those in his Head Full of Ghosts book but overall this book pales in comparison. I think the author is talented, but this book had too many different plot threads – zombies, doppelgangers, Satan, ESP, etc. that went nowhere. There were a couple of very deep themes (dog pack mentality of teenage boys as one example, can good quickly turn evil, etc.) that could have been explored more successfully.
Fell short for me