Shiny Happy People
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
A twisted and thrilling genre-bending novel that shines a light on the terrors of the U.S. opioid epidemic, Clay McLeod Chapman has written an instant classic about a mysterious new drug plaguing a small town and the haunting side effects.
At sixteen, Kyra is still haunted by the horrors she saw growing up with her drug-addicted mother. She doesn’t feel like she belongs anywhere—and disturbing dreams come to her at night.
When a new party drug makes its way to her high school, Kyra’s life becomes an actual nightmare. A video challenge spreads among the students—and though she doesn’t participate, Kyra can’t escape the inexplicable side effects.
Everyone around her seems to be mysteriously changing, including the people she loves the most. Her brother has a new personality overnight. Her best friend suddenly feels like a stranger. The only other person who seems to notice the eeriness is Logan, the new boy at school. Like Kyra, he has steered clear of the party scene.
When the strangeness begins to feel sinister—or unnatural—Kyra is determined to find out exactly what is behind the mysterious drug. As she and Logan get closer to the truth, the line between Kyra’s past and present blurs . . . and she will need to face the terrors inside herself, or lose everyone she loves.
“Clay McLeod Chapman is one of my favorite horror storytellers working today.”—Jordan Peele
“The most ambitious novel yet from a writer quietly redefining the emotional contours of contemporary horror.”—Vulture on Wake Up and Open Your Eyes
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Because of her biological mother's history with drug dependency, self-admittedly high-strung Kyra Cartwright, 16, avoids the parties and substances that seem to tempt her classmates. Living with her adoptive family in Hopewell, Va., a former Big Tobacco town now dominated by a shadowy pharmaceutical conglomerate, further cements Kyra's resolve to steer clear of potential temptation. She becomes alarmed when videos of her classmates partaking in mysterious new drug Spore—which causes seizures followed by eerie euphoria—start circulating. Those who take Spore, including Kyra's adoptive brother and her best friend, leave the parties as unsettlingly cheerful simulacrums of themselves. Only Kyra and new student Logan seem immune to the drug's allure, and aware of its strange effects. As friends and teachers urge Kyra to "adjust" to the changes around her, and even suggest trying Spore herself, she begins to suspect that a sinister force is behind the substance's spread. In his chilling YA debut, Chapman (Wake Up and Open Your Eyes, for adults) blends harrowing psychological terror with visceral body horror to deliver a nightmare steeped in paranoid ambiance. Claustrophobic prose interspersed with haunting dream sequences touch on themes of addiction, conformity, family abandonment, and trauma. Main characters read as white. Ages 12–up.
