NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Stranger Things meets the South. Chilling, hilarious, and suspenseful—I loved it!”—Felicia Day From the authors of Rhett & Link’s Book of Mythicality and creators of Good Mythical Morning . . . It’s 1992 in Bleak Creek, North Carolina—a sleepy little place with all the trappings of an ordinary Southern town: two Baptist churches, friendly smiles coupled with … Southern town: two Baptist churches, friendly smiles coupled with silent judgments, and an unquenchable appetite for pork products. Beneath the town’s cheerful façade, however, Bleak Creek teens live in constant fear of being sent to the Whitewood School, a local reformatory with a history of putting unruly youths back on the straight and narrow—a record so impeccable that almost everyone is willing to ignore the suspicious deaths that have occurred there over the past decade.
At first, high school freshmen Rex McClendon and Leif Nelson believe what they’ve been told: that the students’ strange demises were all just tragic accidents, the unfortunate consequence of succumbing to vices like Marlboro Lights and Nirvana. But when the shoot for their low-budget horror masterpiece, PolterDog, goes horribly awry—and their best friend, Alicia Boykins, is sent to Whitewood as punishment—Rex and Leif are forced to question everything they know about their unassuming hometown and its cherished school for delinquents.
Eager to rescue their friend, Rex and Leif pair up with recent NYU film school graduate Janine Blitstein to begin piecing together the unsettling truth of the school and its mysterious founder, Wayne Whitewood. What they find will leave them battling an evil beyond their wildest imaginations—one that will shake Bleak Creek to its core.
Praise for The Lost Causes of Bleak Creek
“The Lost Causes of Bleak Creek is like your best friend from high school—kind of weird and a little twisted, but no matter how much trouble they caused, they always made you laugh. You don’t have to be a GMM fan to realize . . . The Lost Causes of Bleak Creek, Will It Awesome Book? F@*# yeah!”—Kurt Sutter, creator of Sons of Anarchy
“Most people don’t read books, let alone write them. That puts Rhett and Link in the top 1% of smart people in the world. Read this book.”—Rachel Bloom, co-creator of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
“It’s scary, it’s fun, and it’s one hell of a carnival ride.”—Kirkus Reviews
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Three friends Rex, Leif, and Alicia have spent their Summer filming PolterDog. They aspire to enter it into the Durham Film Festival and earn recognition for their masterpiece. But as they film one of their last scenes, a horrible accident leaves Wayne Whitewood badly burned. While the boys are grounded and their filmmaking rights are taken away, Alicia is sent to the Whitewood reform school. A school where no one is allowed entry except those who work at and attend it. And the children that leave it, are forever changed. Rex and Leif refuse to leave Alicia to be reformed and begin to hatch plans to break her out. They will soon find that the Whitewood school has a heinous past.
The Lost Causes of Bleak Creek started strong. The three friends are introduced as hatching wild ideas and following along with their childhood dreams. Listening to Rex and Leif banter back and forth was comical and reminiscent of the 90s. Living in a small town that doesn’t have much to offer, the friends found plenty to keep themselves busy. Any action that was too risky in the eyes of the town was frowned on, and some religious overtones were overdramatized for comedy.
But it began to fall apart when Janine was introduced. Her backstory was not necessary to the plot. It could have been summarized well enough to trigger her appearance in Bleak Creek. Her family dynamics did add to the humor and suspense of the Whitewood mystery. But at the same time, her original reasons for filming the town were not as humorous as I believe they were supposed to be.
The theme of friendship and clever one-liners from Rex and Leif kept me engaged despite the plot feeling disjointed at times. It was almost as if different writing styles were competing against one another. I also contribute finishing the book to the audio narrator, Vikas Adam. He did a fantastic job with different voices and bringing the characters to life.
If you’re into humor books, give this a try. And if you are a fan of Rhett and Link from YouTube, you can certainly see where some of the inspiration came from. But I think I will stick to watching their videos.
(4.5 / 5)
This was a fun, easy read, with 90s references and characters that seemed all-too-real. Rex & Leif, while best friends, had issues that arose from being too close, almost like sibling rivalry. The mystery of the school developed in a way that kept my attention, and especially had me wanting to come back and keep reading after I’d hit the half-way point. And the ending, which can make or break a thriller more than most other genres, was well-executed.
The main reason for the half-star detraction is that some of Rex & Leif’s arguments were a little unrealistic, given what was going on around them when they had them. I know things like that can happen in real life–as someone with 3 sisters, I know that we didn’t always take into account whether or not our petty squabbles were a good idea in the current circumstances. But on the other hand, I’d like to think we would have been above that during some of the particular situations in which Rex & Leif argued (not giving specifics to avoid spoilers).
While it’s labeled as a horror book, this book was not scary to me at all. I said this in another review recently, but I’m really not into horror much as a genre, in any medium (so why did I just read 2 horror books in a row?). This also means I’ve not read much horror, so I don’t honestly know how it normally works in book-form. But to me, this was suspenseful, but I wouldn’t call it horror. If it were made into a movie, I could see some visuals being pretty horrific though, so maybe that means the tone wasn’t set right in the book to make parts that could have been scary appropriately creepy.
I’ve read so many thrillers lately that promise everything up until the last 20% of the book, and then fail to deliver the right punch to drive home the thrills. I was skeptical as I neared the end of this book, but it did its job perfectly! It was just what I would have wanted it to be. Plus, a character that was a minor annoyance (intentionally) throughout the book had me laughing and cheering at the end, which was a plus!
I read this book because my nearly adult son is a big fan of Rhett & Link and Good Mythical Morning. He was interested in reading it and thought I might like to too (mostly just because he knows I’ve been getting back into reading a lot lately). So we got it from the library as soon as their hardcover copy came in. He hasn’t finished it yet (he’s never been much of a recreational reader, so he needs nudges to even remember to read it), but I can say that from the perspective of someone who has seen very little of Rhett & Link’s online presence, I’m really glad I read this book. I would recommend it for fans of thrillers and horror, understanding that it’s a very mild horror.
”But once they go astray, we can’t give up on them. The Whitewood School knows no lost causes.”
The Lost Causes of Bleak Creek is the debut novel by the hands of the hosts of Good Mythical Morning, Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal. It’s creepy, it’s eerie and it’s full dark humour. I really loved the book and binged it within a few days, completely sucked into the story everytime I picked up the book.
As both a long term fan of Good Mythical Morning and of reading, I just had to read this book. The setting of the book and the main character are directly based on Rhett and Link themselves and their childhood town, Buies Creek. Rhett and Link made a documentary series to celebrate the launch of the book, going back to Buies Creek, North Carolina and tell us all about growing up there.
Having followed Rhett and Link’s videos for years and watched their documentary series, there was certainly an extra level of enjoyment as there were so many references and traits woven into the setting and characters. However, you do not need any background information to understand and enjoy the plot, these are just extras for the fans.
The story takes place in 1992 in Bleak Creek, North Carolina, a small southern town with two Baptist churches, friendly smiles coupled with silent judgments, a seemingly unquenchable appetite for pork products, and a local reformatory school all the Bleak Creek teens are terrified to be send to. The Whitewood School has such an impeccable record of putting teens back on the straight and narrow that almost everyone is willing to ignore the mysterious deaths that have occurred there over the past decade.
Everyone told high school freshmen Rex McClendon and Leif Nelson that the student’s demises where tragic accidents. But when their best friend, Alica Boykins, is taken to the Whitewood School as punishment after an accident while shooting their low-budget horror film, PolterDog, they are forced to question everything they now about their hometown and the school.
Rex and Leif pair up with recent NYU film school grad Janine Blitstein to begin piecing together the unsettling truth of the school and its mysterious founder, Wayne Whitewood. What they find, with Alicia’s life hanging in the balance, will leave them battling an evil beyond their wildest teenage imaginations—one that will shake Bleak Creek to its core.
I thought the plot and the way it unwound was really clever. Usually, in a mystery novel, eventually you can start to crack the mystery, have suspicions and as you usually have way more information than the characters, you know what’s going on long before them. But not in this book. Information is only revealed right before or right when you need it and only with limited context.
I really loved the writing in this book. It sucks you into the story and keeps you hooked in a way that you just want to keep reading. At some point, I just said I was going to read for half an hour, as that’s usually the longest stretch my focus holds, but at one point I looked up and was almost one hundred pages further. The writing style is not complicated, but is still engaging to the reader.
However, I do have to note that I was informed this book was written with the help of a ghostwriter. I do not know the full extend of this and you can’t find any information about this openly, but it makes sense. For a debut, this book is exceptionally well written and while there are really people who have debuts better than someone else’s tenth novel, it makes sense that this book was not fully written by Rhett and Link themselves, especially looking at how busy their schedules always are. But judging by how much time Rhett and Link have poured into this, I personally think the ghostwriter was just a third pair of hands on this book, instead of the only one, and was also helping translate certain parts of the story from Rhett and Link’s mind to paper.
My only issue with this book is the ending. I enjoy open endings, wrapped up enough to make sense, but leaving the reader to it to fantasize. But this ending felt rushed and messy, as if the writers couldn’t figure out how to wrap it up. It has too many loose ends to really make sense and too many things left unanswered, which honestly left me a little unsatisfied. But I am not mad at it as the journey towards the end was more than good enough to be worth it.
These loose ends, however, did make me think and theorize about a potential sequel, as then the ending would make sense in a way. As far as I know Rhett and Link never said this was a standalone novel, but there is also no sign to a sequel (yet) whatsoever. It has been about a year since the release this book, which is often the minimum of time between a book and it’s sequel and as they aren’t primarily authors, it wouldn’t be abnormal for it to take longer to be announced and released than most others books.
So, if you are looking for a dark and thrilling read for the darker days, this should definitely be on your reading list. It’s a quick and engaging book to read, able to thrill you and suck you into the eeriness of the story, without being so scary it would leave you awake at night. I highly recommend this book, especially if you enjoy creepy mystery and horror with similar vibes to Stranger Things and Riverdale, and if you enjoyed the ’80s aesthethic and references in the former, you will certainly love the ’90s vibes in this book. Also, I would personally give this book a similar (minimal) age rating as those two series as the age category isn’t clearly marketed. Even if you don’t know who Rhett and Link are, I still highly recommend it as this novel is a piece of art on it’s own and doesn’t need them as context to be enjoyed.
I really hope I am right about a sequel, as I would love to read more fiction from Rhett and Link. And even if the sequel isn’t happening, I definitely hope they are writing more novels in the future.
Amazing
*WARNING MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS*
Love the inside jokes. Mythical Beasts will understand the reference to Leif’s coke shirt. As well as nut-ball, but it won’t detract from readers that aren’t in the know.
It doesn’t show at all how Rex and Leif are based on R & L, even when Leif fumbled over his words speaking to Martha about the reason behind his wearing the clip-on tie, or in the frustration Rex feels over Leif’s food pickiness. They are so very different characters, like night and day.
All of the 90’s pop-culture references are just so much nostalgia. Like Rex’s Jams, and Leif’s hyper-color shirt.
The typos being added to the script was brilliant and it added to the realism of the story.
I truly enjoyed the book. I laughed, cried, and felt a deep anger towards some of the residents of Bleak Creek. I felt, even the “over the top” characters were relatable in some ways, including Whitewood’s followers. The charisma that some people have, can enthrall people with weaker personalities to follow and do things they may never have thought themselves capable of doing.
I liked that they gave Ben a character, I’m sure he’d be honored to be immortalized in such a way. I adored GamGam’s crazy grandma energy. I was so thrilled when Donna came around. Janine seems like a great person who I could see hanging out with. Alicia is a bit like me, most of my close childhood chums were guys, I’m glad she’s not really gone. It is sad about Ben, Josefina and the other kids.
The idea that a parent would have sent their children to the reform school for such minor reasons was upsetting. Then when Leif’s Mom sent him, I knew there had to be something much more sinister going on. Using the water in that way was genius, it wasn’t just taking the children, but was in a way taking control of the adults. Making them complacent.
Those adults got away with the things they did. They will be subject to no justice. That is the only thing that I didn’t like, hopefully it will leave an opening for a sequel?