Bad Creek
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4.0 • 1 Rating
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
“June's debut is atmospheric and haunting, capturing the heart-pounding exhilaration of exchanging ghost stories around a campfire. The perfect spine-tingling read for summer!”—Tori Bovalino, author of My Throat an Open Grave
Three lifelong friends confront restless ghosts and malevolent family secrets in this fierce, propulsive debut young adult horror novel.
Iris, Gum, and Aidan are vacationing in Bad Creek, just like every summer. Except Iris’s older sister, Glory, drowned in the lake last year, and Iris can’t seem to move on; Gum is hiding his sexuality from his family while being viciously haunted by Glory’s rotting ghost; and Aidan is distraught over a drunken argument with Glory that he fears may have led to her death. When Iris sleepwalks to the dilapidated house that Glory obsessively sketched in her final days, she and the boys begin to uncover a sinister history in the very bones of the town. The trio must reckon with the events of last summer and uncover what lurks within Bad Creek before it takes Iris’s life next.
Gripping and vengeful, Bad Creek confronts the intersection of religion, sexuality, and feminism, and forces readers to reckon with monsters in all their forms—human included.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A grieving teen delves into the sordid secrets of a popular summer destination and uncovers more than she bargained for in this thrilling genre mash-up. Though 16-year-old Iris Garren and her two mothers have been vacationing in Bad Creek, Mich., for a decade, the familiar locale feels different without Iris's older sister, Glory, who drowned in the local lake last year. The event was ruled an accident, but Iris doesn't believe it. As she eases back into her summertime routine, she catches up with friends and fellow vacationers Gum and Aidan. On the other side of the lake live the wealthy Clavey family, which bends to the will of religious patriarch Grandpa Bill. The history of the Claveys is inextricably woven into that of the town, leading Iris to believe that the Claveys—specifically Bill's grandson and Gum's cousin, Hudson—are responsible for Glory's death. While investigating the drowning, Iris, Gum, and Aidan each contend with personal challenges, and stumble upon supernatural secrets about Bad Creek. In this eerie debut, June considers the effect that Grandpa Bill and the Clavey brood have on the town, injecting introspective examinations of religious trauma and wealth disparity into a bone-chilling paranormal plot. Main characters cue as white. Ages 14–up.
