The Bright Lands
A Novel
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2.9 • 8 Ratings
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- $2.99
Publisher Description
A Best Book of 2020 from Library Journal, CrimeReads, and BookPage
“Marks the debut of an already accomplished novelist.” —John Banville
The town of Bentley holds two things dear: its football, and its secrets. But when star quarterback Dylan Whitley goes missing, an unremitting fear grips this remote corner of Texas.
Joel Whitley was shamed out of conservative Bentley ten years ago, and while he’s finally made a life for himself as a gay man in New York, his younger brother’s disappearance soon brings him back to a place he thought he’d escaped for good. Meanwhile, Sheriff’s Deputy Starsha Clark stayed in Bentley; Joel’s return brings back painful memories—not to mention questions—about her own missing brother. And in the high school hallways, Dylan’s friends begin to suspect that their classmates know far more than they’re telling the police. Together, these unlikely allies will stir up secrets their town has long tried to ignore, drawing the attention of dangerous men who will stop at nothing to see that their crimes stay buried.
But no one is quite prepared to face the darkness that’s begun to haunt their nightmares, whispering about a place long thought to be nothing but an urban legend: an empty night, a flicker of light on the horizon—The Bright Lands.
Shocking, twisty and relentlessly suspenseful, John Fram’s debut is a heart-pounding story about old secrets, modern anxieties and the price young men pay for glory.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Fram's ambitious debut takes a critical, terrifying look at a small town in Texas, where high school football reigns supreme and puts a double bind on those who are desperate to get out. Former high school quarterback Joel Whitley, now almost 30, returns home to Bentley, Tex., from Manhattan after a decade, distressed by a series of desperate text messages from his younger brother, Dylan, a star high school quarterback himself who has become disenchanted with football. Joel, openly gay, has embraced a new life as a data analyst, but when he's back in the stadium watching Dylan play, old feelings of angst return after someone makes a homophobic remark about a black male cheerleader. Dylan soon disappears, which may be related to an out-of-town s&m club and a supernatural creature that occasionally causes underground rumblings. Joel teams up with a former classmate turned sherrif's deputy to search for Dylan, and they begin to uncover the town's dark secrets. While Fram stacks the deck with a few too many secondary characters (old loves, family ties) and subplots (drugs, murders, nefarious schemers), his attempt to connect Bentley's long-buried secrets with generation-repeating bullying and homophobia is commendable. This offers as many weekend frights as celebratory lights.
