The Seven Visitations of Sydney Burgess
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- $2.99
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- $2.99
Publisher Description
From an electrifying voice in horror comes the haunting tale of a woman whose life begins to unravel after a home invasion.
“Marino offers horrors both existential and visceral. From a stunning opening, the sense of dread just builds and builds.” —M. R. Carey, author of The Girl with All the Gifts
"Odd and dark and fascinating . . . Not quite like anything I've ever read before. A strange, compelling, late-night page-turner. It kept me reading way past my bedtime." —T. Kingfisher, author of The Hollow Places
Possession is an addiction.
Sydney's spent years burying her past and building a better life for herself and her young son. A respectable marketing job, a house with reclaimed and sustainable furniture, and a boyfriend who loves her son and accepts her, flaws and all.
But when she opens her front door, and a masked intruder knocks her briefly unconscious, everything begins to unravel.
She wakes in the hospital and tells a harrowing story of escape. Of dashing out a broken window. Of running into her neighbors' yard and calling the police.
The cops tell her a different story. Because the intruder is now lying dead in her guest room—murdered in a way that looks intimately personal.
Sydney can't remember killing the man. No one believes her.
Back home, as horrific memories surface, an unnatural darkness begins whispering in her ear. Urging her back to old addictions and a past she's buried to build a better life for herself and her son.
As Sydney searches for truth among the wreckage of a past that won't stay buried for long, the unquiet darkness begins to grow. To change into something unimaginable.
To reveal terrible cravings of its own.
“Admirers of the works of Tana French, Megan Abbott, and Zoje Stage will devour this book.” —Booklist
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Marino makes his adult debut (after the Plot to Kill Hitler YA series) with an ambitious if slightly overstuffed psychological horror novel about a woman's struggle to piece reality back together in the aftermath of an attack. Sydney Burgess, who has spent the past nine years maintaining sobriety and building a life with her son and boyfriend, is attacked and nearly murdered by a home intruder. When she recounts her narrow escape to the police, they give her a different timeline of events—one that ends with the intruder's body found in her home, profoundly mutilated. Sydney doesn't remember killing the man, much less desecrating his body in such a gruesome fashion. As a malevolent force grows within her and coaxes back old addictions, her life unravels and reality bends. Now Sydney must uncover the truth and confront the trauma of her past before it devours her. Marino does an impressive job writing tender and heartbreaking moments without sacrificing the brutal tone that drives the story. Though the time jumps and unreliable narration can feel erratic, the dreamy, nonlinear structure keeps things from becoming predictable. The novel juggles devices and themes it doesn't always manage to catch, but when it works, it's absolutely devastating.
Customer Reviews
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Brutal and beautiful