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Publisher's Summary

The papers call it “The Suicide Virus.” The teenagers of Gethsemane, Ohio, are killing themselves at an alarming rate.

Steven Wrigley is trying to survive his senior year of high school, still reeling from the death of his mother and adjusting to life with his father. Along the way, he meets a girl who becomes another kind of obsession: Elise Devon.

Elise’s secrets keep her distanced from everyone. She has a special place she calls the Obscura. She goes there when she is depressed or angry. The Obscura makes her feel like nothing she’s ever felt before. When she loses herself to the Obscura, she fears she also gives herself to something much darker, something much more powerful. Something calling itself the Sorrow King.

Who is the Sorrow King?

He is carved from wood and bone.

He smells like wax, dead leaves, and memories.

He travels by moonlight and drinks the sorrow of others.

Can love exact vengeance on a monster made from madness, depression, and misery? Or will the Sorrow King bleed the town dry before satiating himself and moving on?

©2011 Andersen Prunty (P)2014 Andersen Prunty

What members say

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Creepy as hell

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

It creeped me the hell out.

Any additional comments?

This is probably the closest thing I’ve read to a traditional horror novel from Prunty. (Or listened to, since I got the Audible version.) I feel like that doesn’t really do it justice. It’s wildly imaginative — no typical horror tropes here — but lacks the balls-out weirdness you’ll read in a lot of his books. This probably makes it a decent starting point for newbies to his work. The grounding may also be one of the things that makes The Sorrow King so damn creepy and unsettling. Oh, and the teenage awkwardness is so spot-on that I cringed a few times. Awesome book.

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    5 out of 5 stars

“Let strange things explain the strangeness.”

“Let strange things explain the strangeness.”

There is something rotten in the small town of Gethsemane. Lurking in the shadows. Driving the students of the local High School to suicide. Hunting. Feeding off the sorrow of the town and threatening to destroy anyone and anything that stands in its way. It’s getting stronger. The bodies are starting to pile up.

A very well written and smart novel with sharp characterizations and a well thought out story line. It takes a minute to get into Andersens narration, but he really nails it and I can't imagine anyone else doing it. Excellent.

A solid 4.5+ Stars all around and highly recommended.