Hollywood North
A Novel in Six Reels
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
“Libling’s assured, quietly menacing debut [is] based on his World Fantasy Award–nominated novella of the same title. . . . Fans of Stand by Me and the like will find much to enjoy.” —Publishers Weekly
It’s the 1960s, and Gus Berry is coming of age in Trenton, a small town on the north shore of Lake Ontario. The place isn’t known for much—unless you count the menacing stray dogs, plant explosions, plane collisions, and regular drownings. The adults seem to take it all in stride, but Gus can’t shake the feeling of impending doom. His friend Annie Barker doesn’t share Gus’s dark thoughts; she believes in things. So Gus goes about his days, surviving school, trying to live up to his widowed mother’s expectations, and growing increasingly obsessed with movies and TV shows. Indeed, he scripts his life to make it way more exciting and adventurous than it actually is.
Gus is clearly a boy who wants things, which makes Jack Levin the perfect friend. He’s a local hero famous for finding stuff : a message in a bottle, a meteorite, a long-lost wedding ring. And when Jack makes his most mysterious discovery yet, Gus and Annie are drawn with him into an investigation of Trenton’s past. Guided by their curiosity, they soon uncover a malignant darkness behind the town’s senseless tragedies.
In Hollywood North, World Fantasy Award–nominated author Michael Libling “spins a tale of movies and memories, nightmares and nostalgia, with such a frightening secret at its core, that you’ll understand why, even though you can go home again, you might end up wishing you didn’t” (Ian Rogers, author of Every House Is Haunted).
“[A] fine first novel . . . Bradbury might have sketched out this mode in the darker parts of Dandelion Wine and the entirety of Something Wicked This Way Comes, but contemporary authors such as Libling are showing us refinements of sensibility and sense of wonder that the old Waukeganian never dreamed of.” —Locus
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Libling's assured, quietly menacing debut, based on his World Fantasy Award nominated novella of the same title, is steeped in bittersweet childhood nostalgia and coming-of-age foibles. Trenton, Ontario, in the 1960s is a town full of secrets and home to an unusual string of tragedies, which most of the adults seem to have forgotten; it also has its share of sinister townspeople and more than a few dead bodies. Young Jack Levin is frequently featured in the local paper for his fascinating finds, including a meteorite and a gold ring. Leo "Gloomy Gus" Berry would like to find things too, so he befriends Jack, hoping to learn his secrets. When Jack finds a treasure trove of silent film props, a local reporter orders the boys to burn them and forget them or else. This all but ensures Jack and Gus will do no such thing. Along with their friend Annie Barker, they vow to discover why they've stirred such panic. Clues lie in Trenton's history as "Hollywood North," when it was a bustling silent movie town. Gus's narration is chock-full of wry humor and golden-age film quotes. The leisurely telling belies the hint of evil simmering just below the town's almost aggressively mundane surface, and there are a few surprises in store. Fans of Stand by Me and the like will find much to enjoy.
