Soon
-
-
4.7 • 11 Ratings
-
-
- $13.99
Publisher Description
A haunted Australian town is left to rot in isolation, in this gripping debut horror novel with “a similar energy and dread as that found in Josh Malerman’s Bird Box” (Kirkus Reviews).
“Beautifully written.” —Paul Tremblay, author of A Head Full of Ghosts
On winter solstice, the birds disappeared, and the mist arrived.
The inhabitants of Nebulah quickly learn not to venture out after dark. But it is hard to stay indoors: cabin fever sets in, and the mist can be beguiling, too.
Eventually only six remain. Like the rest of the townspeople, Pete has nowhere else to go. After he rescues a stranded psychic from a terrible fate, he’s given a warning: he will be dead by solstice unless he leaves town—soon.
An intense, atmospheric horror novel in the vein of Richard Matheson and John Wyndham, Lois Murphy’s debut takes readers inside a nightmarish world that will make you question the very nature of your reality.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The residents of a tiny, isolated town in the Australian outback are haunted by a malevolent force in this wonderfully taut novel, which is laced from start to finish with creeping dread. Every evening as the sun sets, the streets of Nebulah fill with a strange mist that swirls with terrible visions of the dead and dying. Only locked doors and windows keep the mist at bay until dawn comes and those who linger outside are murdered, their bodies never found, their forms added to the specters in the mist come dark the next day. Aging former cop Pete is one of the last stubborn holdouts in what has become a ghost town, with most residents either disappeared into the mist or fled to safer climes. Despite strict habits of vigilance being indoors by dark, locking doors and windows, and clustering together at night the survivors' numbers are rapidly whittled down by suicide, surrender, and slip-ups until only Pete and his closest friend, retired schoolteacher Milly, remain. Murphy deploys sharp, fluent prose and a skillful command of atmospheric terror to tell a story that gets at the heart of real horror: the very human emotions of regret, loneliness, despair, yearning for home, and having nowhere to go. Readers who appreciate subtle horror grounded in human failings will appreciate the buildup and maintenance of tension through this book, as well as the fateful ending, which successfully drives home that same vulnerable humanity.
