Nowhere
A Novel
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3.4 • 8 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
Mare of Easttown meets The Outsider in this spine-tingling and twisty debut about a series of disappearances in a small, fundamentalist town and what one broken family must do to remain together as dark forces close in.
After losing her young son in an accident, Rachel Kennan throws herself into her career as police chief of a small Virginia town to avoid focusing on her grief. Meanwhile, her husband, Finn, a washed-up writer whose alcoholism led to the devastating tragedy that changed everything, struggles to redeem himself before his family completely falls apart. Their two daughters are the only things keeping Rachel and Finn together, but the girls have demons of their own.
At the same time, a disturbing crime rocks their tightknit, religious community, sending Rachel chasing leads in a place that does not take kindly to outsiders. When an ominous force in the forest starts calling to the children, fear spawns hate among the townspeople, placing the Kennan family directly in the line of fire. Left with no choice but to rely on each other, Rachel and Finn must come together to face threats inside and out.
A haunting family saga and a disquieting horror debut, Nowhere draws from Appalachian folklore to caution us that true terror is what we bury in our own hearts.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Gunn debuts with this eerie eldritch story of a grieving family swept into evils out of Appalachian folklore. Rachel Kennan, the chief of police in rural Dahlmouth, Va., struggles in the wake of her journalist husband Finn's drunk driving accident, which killed their young son. After the townsfolk unearth her old social media accounts and discover photos of her partying hard and kissing women, the scandal leaves her totally isolated. So when she discovers a mutilated body in the woods, there's no one willing to cooperate with her investigation. Despite Rachel's vague warnings about danger, her older daughter, Charlie, sneaks out to meet friends who are lured into the woods and come back different. As other kids go missing and their parents turn inexplicably violent, Rachel refuses to consider that something supernatural is going on even amid mounting signs and strange warnings from her younger daughter. The author competently blends mythic horror with a delicate, introspective portrait of a family broken by grief and the self-defeating ways they try to cope. With this intense story, Gunn proves herself an assured new voice in horror.
