Book Review: Disappearance at Devil's Rock by Paul Tremblay (giveaway)

Disclosure / Disclaimer: I received this ebook, free of charge,from William Morrow, for review purposes on this blog. No other compensation, monetary or in kind, has been received or implied for this post. Nor was I told how to post about it

And now a book about every mother's worst nightmare...

Synopsis:

Late one summer night, Elizabeth Sanderson receives the devastating news that every mother fears: her fourteen-year-old son, Tommy, has vanished without a trace in the woods of a local park.

The search isn’t yielding any answers, and Elizabeth and her young daughter, Kate, struggle to comprehend his disappearance. Feeling helpless and alone, their sorrow is compounded by anger and frustration. The local and state police haven’t uncovered any leads. Josh and Luis, the friends who were with Tommy last, may not be telling the whole truth about that night in Borderland State Park, when they were supposedly hanging out a landmark the local teens have renamed Devil’s Rock— rumored to be cursed. 

Living in an all-too-real nightmare, riddled with worry, pain, and guilt, Elizabeth is wholly unprepared for the strange series of events that follow. She believes a ghostly shadow of Tommy materializes in her bedroom, while Kate and other local residents claim to see a shadow peering through their own windows in the dead of night. Then, random pages torn from Tommy’s journal begin to mysteriously appear—entries that reveal an introverted teenager obsessed with the phantasmagoric; the loss of his father, killed in a drunk-driving accident a decade earlier; a folktale involving the devil and the woods of Borderland; and a horrific incident that Tommy believed connected them all and changes everything.

As the search grows more desperate, and the implications of what happened becomes more haunting and sinister, no one is prepared for the shocking truth about that night and Tommy’s disappearance at Devil’s Rock.

Review:

Tremblay is the master at blending supernatural elements into normal everyday life, in a way that is so natural, that you have to do a double take and rethink reality! He does it again with a simple story of a missing boy. What happened to Tommy? Who is the mysterious shadow everyone keeps seeing? Are Tommy's friends more involved than they said in his disappearance? As Tremblay allows the story to unravel like a tightly wound skein of yarn, the nuances appear. This is not a story to be read quickly, but to be savored for all the small signs. And then when you THINK you know what happened, be prepares to NOT know. The ending does not disappoint, though I will warn there is a bit of gruesome description towards the end. But if you read police procedurals, you'll be fine. Once you finish the book you realize just what a great writer Tremblay is and how he 'deceived' the reader via inferences, but not words. How the reader 'sees' something because they have bonded with a character and empathisize with them. This is sure to be one of the talked about books this Summer, so do NOT miss it's June release! Put it on Mom's pre-order list for that new ereader or tablet you got her! She'll want to read it too!

About the Author:

Paul Tremblay is a multiple Bram Stoker Award finalist and the author of A Head Full of Ghosts,The Little Sleep, and No Sleep Till Wonderland. He is a member of the board of directors of the Shirley Jackson Awards, and his essays and short fiction have appeared in the Los Angeles Times and numerous “year’s best” anthologies. He has a master’s degree in mathematics and lives in Stoughton, Massachusetts, with his wife and two children.


Giveaway:

If you're a member of Goodreads, head on over and enter the giveaway of this great book there!