Disappearance at Devil's Rock: A Novel

Paul Tremblay masters the art of creating multidimensional characters whom you love despite their flaws. It's a book that's not black and white, instead its filled with shades of gray. Highly recommend!

Paul Tremblay has locked into a grove; two stand-out novels in two years that are earning him high praise in the field; and yes: some famous people are taking notice, but the writing is why you should be cracking open his books. After reading A Headful Of Ghosts, it's obvious this is a real fan of horror at the healm, but there were times in that (fantastic) novel where some of the devices felt heavy-handed (almost like a book version of Cabin In The Woods, where it's such a loveletter to the genre the story itself gets lost).

Anyway. This book is more self-assured. It's an effortless read; you're never halted by language or writer's tricks (things that happen to me often in literary horror, as if some authors need to prove they are above the genre). This book is confident in its telling and knows what it wants to do. A standout in a year of great horror novels.

Tremblay states that Disappearance takes one of its many creative cues from the Australian Picnic at Hanging Rock, and that movie's tangle of dreads, revelations and confusions pervades this craft - conscious novel. The tale becomes a Rubik's Cube ghost/Satanic/zombie lore that resolves its central mystery into relative!y common prescience, like Pontius Pilate's wife begging him not to sentence the Christ. For all its dangling threads that a reader may wish Tremblay had taken a month or two to revisit and perhaps reconsider, the novel nevertheless delivers occasional gut punches of visceral truth to any parent who has feared for or lost a child. A cautionary tale about the Molotov cocktail of naively vulnerable adolescent volatility lit by an adult predator.

Sections of this book are written in a diary format with tiny scrawled handwriting, and are extremely difficult to read on a Kindle. I know this makes me sound like a cranky old person, but I'm in my early 40's, my vision is fine. There was no way to increase the font size so you're forced to pretty much go blind trying to decipher the writing. It was very annoying and added to my issues with the book.

Besides that the story is lacking and everything that you think is going on is pretty much exactly what's happening -
SPOILERS - there's really no twists or turns - the weird older kid that shows up? Yep, he's behind Tommy's disappearance. The part with stabbing the old man? Yep, the kids did it, just two slightly different versions on if they were "into it" or not. It's all told in a flat, matter of fact way. The supernatural elements really don't add much to the story, basically a ghostly image shows up to still see his mum and say goodbye after he's dead, but that's about it. It's really not a scary book, more like an episode of 48 Hours Mystery.

It seems we're either supposed to think about as usual the banality of evil - the weird older kid had a bad childhood, his influence (and beer) gets the boys to act out and beat and stab a man to death - similar to the stories you read sometimes in the news of kids committing some terrible violent act, then going off to school like nothing happened. But in this case you just didn't care, even when you find out how Tommy died you don't really feel much because it's hard to know who the ''real" Tommy was - a shy kid who lost his father, a psycho who took pleasure in stabbing an old man, a vigilante who came to the park the last night really to stab Arnold? Or a shy kid who felt bullied into stabbing the old man, one who was never planning to kill Arnold, but to scare him...who knows. And by the end, who cares.

I found this one hard to get through. The majority of the book seemed very slow moving to me and it was all I could do to get through it. The pace picked up in the last couple of chapters and saved it from being a total waste of time, just...

I read about 2 mysteries each week, and enjoy some more than others. This one was terrible - zero stars.

The plot is incomprehensible; the characters unlikable; and the dialogue is tedious and weirdly organized. There's absolutely nothing thrilling or exciting about the story; the best description would just be boring. I kept reading only because I was minimally curious about how the book would end, but I wound up just skimming the last hundred pages or so (something I never do with other books) because I was so tired of the whole thing.

It's hard for me to believe the positive reviews about this book. I tend to think they are less than honest and objective. Don't waste your time or money on this one.

Really surprised this book is so highly rated. I, too, enjoyed his previous book Head Full of Ghosts. And I was with him for a good part of this book but in the final analysis, I just don't think it hung together. Everything we are told about these characters turns out to be not true. I know this is the era of the unreliable narrator, but in this book they all seem to be unreliable. The boy's behaviors, at first innocent, then turn alarming and dangerous. Their reaction to their friend's disappearance is secretive and suspicious. The sister is apparently baiting her mother with the possibility of her brother's ghost. One of my rules is that the book can't ask you to believe more than one unbelievable thing. I can stomach believing these four friends aren't the kind, responsible people they are described as. But you can't then ask me to believe the sister is conniving and unfeeling, and the mother is a neurotic nutball and the weird man, who apparently has never done anything remotely like this, suddenly does all sorts of reprehensible thing. No, it just didn't add up to a whole. There were some very creepy scenes, however, otherwise it would have been one star.

I found this one hard to get through. The majority of the book seemed very slow moving to me and it was all I could do to get through it. The pace picked up in the last couple of chapters and saved it from being a total waste of time, just...

I read about 2 mysteries each week, and enjoy some more than others. This one was terrible - zero stars.

The plot is incomprehensible; the characters unlikable; and the dialogue is tedious and weirdly organized. There's absolutely nothing thrilling or exciting about the story; the best description would just be boring. I kept reading only because I was minimally curious about how the book would end, but I wound up just skimming the last hundred pages or so (something I never do with other books) because I was so tired of the whole thing.

It's hard for me to believe the positive reviews about this book. I tend to think they are less than honest and objective. Don't waste your time or money on this one.

Really surprised this book is so highly rated. I, too, enjoyed his previous book Head Full of Ghosts. And I was with him for a good part of this book but in the final analysis, I just don't think it hung together. Everything we are told about these characters turns out to be not true. I know this is the era of the unreliable narrator, but in this book they all seem to be unreliable. The boy's behaviors, at first innocent, then turn alarming and dangerous. Their reaction to their friend's disappearance is secretive and suspicious. The sister is apparently baiting her mother with the possibility of her brother's ghost. One of my rules is that the book can't ask you to believe more than one unbelievable thing. I can stomach believing these four friends aren't the kind, responsible people they are described as. But you can't then ask me to believe the sister is conniving and unfeeling, and the mother is a neurotic nutball and the weird man, who apparently has never done anything remotely like this, suddenly does all sorts of reprehensible thing. No, it just didn't add up to a whole. There were some very creepy scenes, however, otherwise it would have been one star.

Fourteen-year-old Tommy Sanderson goes missing while on a sleepover with his two best friends. Friends Luis and Josh claim that the three snuck out to Devil's Rock, in the heart of Borderland State Park, to hang out and drink beer. According to the other teens, Tommy took off running into the dark woods and never returned.

As the hours pass with no sign of Tommy, his mother and younger sister are frantic. His friends are distraught. The police are called, a search begins, but there is no sign of Tommy.

In the meantime, Tommy's classmates are circulating tales of a dark figure who stares into bedroom windows at night. #shadowman is trending on social media, and a long forgotten folktale about the Devil is gaining currency among the local teens. And when Tommy's mother finds a few pages torn from her son's diary, the pages raise even more questions about just what her son had been up to in the days before his disappearance

This is a taut, dark, creepy tale about a missing child, with some (potentially) supernatural elements--although that also remains open to interpretation. In many ways, the reader must draw their own conclusions on the final pages of this novel.

This is another excellent book by Tremblay. The characters and emotions within the book are incredibly real. My heartstrings were pulled hard. There were multiple points where I had to pause to let the story and the latest events sink in. The story starts with Elizabeth Sanderson and her thirteen-year-old son Tommy. Tommy was supposed to be at a sleepover at a friend's house when he went missing in the woods of Borderland State Park. The rest of the story is around what happened to Tommy. At times the story is a police procedural. At other times a possible ghost story. Throughout the book is the mystery of what happened and the emotions that it brings forth. While it was kind of annoying that the "facts" of what happened kept changing, it was also realistic with any investigation. Each piece of evidence uncovers new info and reveals lies being told for various reasons. I will admit that I was a tad disappointed with the revelation of the final conflict; it introduced a previously undiscussed idea that was semi-pivotal to that conflict. But it also depends on what you the reader want to believe. Similar to A HEAD FULL OF GHOSTS, many of the key moments could be interpreted in a couple different ways depending on what you want to believe. Did the characters see something for real? Or just imagine it? That ends up being for you to decide. As for me, I'm going to continue buying and reading Tremblay's books.

This was certainly different and I had a real problem with the author's writing style from the start. The way he phrased sentences and presented the various characters as they related to each other reminded me of studying Shakespeare at school!....
Josh: "You were playing on our server?"
Tommy:"What's the big deal?"
Arnold: "No worries. I was on some public one. Not yours."
Josh: "How'd you know Tommy was playing then?"
Arnold: "Huh? Nah, I didn't know."
Josh: "You just said you did."
This rather irritating way of placing the speakers name at the start, inserting a colon immediately after, and then stating what was said....

Now having established my concerns, I must admit I was someone smitten with the suggestive and creeping horror. Elizabeth Sanderson is awoken to the news that her son Tommy is missing. What happened on the final night when he disappeared at Devil's Rock when in the company of his friends Louis, Joss and the mysterious Arnold. What is the significance of dark shadows, the crack-head penny, and mysterious notes that appear randomly at night for Elizabeth's attention. Who can she trust; daughter Kate? mum Janice? Detective Allison Murtagh? I read this story over a 24 hour period and found its content very unsettling, the character of Arnold somewhat evil, and the outcome for Tommy, Louis, and Joss sadly inevitable. The events that took place on one fateful night at Devil's Rock cannot fail but make a lasting impression on the reader and that surely must be the mark of a good book.

Hard book to rate because the ending is what saves it, but you may not want to slog through the first two-thirds to get there. The bulk of the book is a fairly dull and generic missing-boy story, tinged with the slightest bit of local demon folklore but not enough to make it a supernatural book by any means. The ending is vastly more exciting, interesting, and energetic than the rest, but, I warn you, not "fun" like you might be hoping when you pick up a story that teases you with the possibility of ghosts and devils. Maybe the book and its ending were written at two different times in the author's life. They are that different.

Also there's an oddball chapter wherein young Kate suddenly plays super sleuth and you're like "oh hey, what's this?" but then that never happens again. ?

Although neither were my all-time faves, I suggest you stick to Head Full of Ghosts and Cabin at the End of the World instead of this one. They're both going to keep you better interested throughout the read, not just waiting for the fire sale at the end.

I received an advance copy of Paul Tremblay’s Disappearance at Devil’s Rock in exchange for an honest review, and here it is...

When I receive ARCs I want nothing more than to love them. After all, the author spends (sometimes) years writing and developing the story, creating a mini world and caring for his or her characters. Because of this, I want to develop a love for their story and characters too. In the case of Tremblay’s latest work, I just couldn’t bring myself to even like his novel.

To begin, I found his writing style awkward. It was a little too raw for me. The characters weren’t well developed enough for me either. Throughout the book, I found myself asking, “Why did she do that? Why would they react that way?” These questions weren’t ever fully resolved. Of course, writing this, I realize both of these devices help create the mood of suspense and uncertainty in Tremblay’s novel.

The glaring reason I disliked this book was the violence. I’m just not a violence lover. Violence disturbs me, especially the type found in this story, and I’m not sure why anyone would want to read about violence. There were whole pages in Disappearance that I couldn’t read. Whole pages!

Noting this last point, it’s obvious Disappearance at Devil’s Rock was not written for an audience such as myself. However, I will admit that I did enjoy one point of Tremblay’s novel. I loved the open ending. In my opinion, this is how all books should end – with questions, and uncertainties. There is never a definitive answer, just a direction in which the story could continue. This is how books linger with us, and become living, breathing works.

If you like suspenseful, psychological, serial killer type books then this one is probably one you would love! Go read it! I recommend it to you, but only you. Anyone else who reads it will have to take a few days to do a brain wipe by binge watching Fuller House or something else fluffy like that, much like I’m about to do!

Tremblay's most recent offering centers around thirteen year old Tommy Sanderson, who inexplicably runs off into Massachusetts' Borderland State Park one night, and vanishes, leaving behind his best friends, Josh and Luis, and anguished mother Elizabeth, sister Kate, and grandmother Janice. He also leaves numerous sketchbooks that display a precocious talent, and spontaneously materializing pages from his diary.

Deftly alternating points of view and journal entries gradually reveal the temptation and descent of three teenaged outcasts from suburban innocence to escalating transgression, as they fall under the sway of a mysterious, self-proclaimed "seer" in his early twenties. The four bond over discussions about the video game Minecraft, forbidden beer-drinking sessions, and the story of Devil's Rock, a gargantuan, split bolder inside Borderland where they meet.

As the Sandersons grieve, question, and generally degenerate into argument over the mysterious journal pages, Detective Allison Murtaugh works at the edges of this compelling, unsettling, and deeply creepy story in an attempt to get to the root of Tommy's vanishing.

If you read and enjoyed A HEAD FULL OF GHOSTS, this book carries much the same flavor, and in my opinion, is superior to it.

This is my first venture into the horrific world of Paul Tremblay, but when the chance comes along to read a book by the most recent Bram Stoker winner before it hits the shelves, you do not turn that down!

As a parent, Disappearance at Devil’s Rock revolves around the most horrifying thing that you can imagine; the call in the middle of the night that your child is missing. Paul Tremblay paints a vivid picture of what would be going through a parent’s mind. Then, at the end of the first chapter, he ups the ante tenfold with an amazing “What? What? What?” moment. This monstrous start kept me riveted to the remainder of the book.

Paul Tremblay has exquisitely put together a real life horror story, and his strength was his ability to realistically capture the varying human reactions to the scenario. Having a teenager at home, I found myself thinking, “Yeah, that is exactly what he would do too.” Teenage boys are some of the worst creatures on the face of the earth when it comes to fully appreciating of the consequences of their actions. But the teens weren’t the only ones portrayed so realistically. This was true of all the characters, from the parents, to the police and all of the members of the community.

Disappearance at Devil’s Rock was a real horror story, any parent’s nightmare. Paul Tremblay is a true master of creating characters and stories that can touch a person’s deep-rooted fears.

*I received a copy of the book from the publisher (via Edelweiss) in exchange for an honest review.

'Disappearance at Devil's Rock' is a gripping thriller that promises to send the reader on a roller coaster of emotions. Not only does it deal with the eerie disappearance of a teenage boy along with the strange events and secrets that follow, but it also speaks of a parent going through one of their worst nightmares - losing a child. There were several smaller story lines happening alongside the main plot, which I thought made the book all the more riveting. It took a bit for me to get accustomed to the author's writing style - it felt a little forced and dry at first - but once things started happening, I was glued to the pages. The story is told from several different points of view, some of them even being notes and pages from Tommy's (the missing boy) journal. I liked how the author incorporated those into the book - it made things more intriguing and mysterious.

The main issue I had with this novel was the author's writing style when it came to using point of view. If you've read any of my other reviews, you'll know that I'm a huge advocate for the first person POV because it allows the reader to connect with the narrator on a much deeper and more personal level than any other style. This book is told from several character's perspectives, but it's all done in the third person. If it had been written using the first person POV, I know I would have been lost inside the pages until I had finished the final sentence. This is solely my personal opinion - I'm not saying anything negative about the writing or book. I just prefer first person POV in almost all situations, and this happens to be one of them. I can understand not wanting to confuse the reader by having so many characters telling their own parts of the story and going with the third person viewpoint to avoid the confusion so it doesn't interfere with the overall plot and the smaller story lines throughout the novel. I completely understand the reasoning and logic, but again - I personally prefer the first person POV and would have loved this book all the more if it had been written that way.

The entire novel is well written with vivid details and descriptions, lots of characters - most of whom are decently rounded with unique personalities and traits, a multi-level story line that gives the entire book a depth that wouldn't have been there otherwise, and the writing was wonderfully done as well. Overall, I really liked this novel for lots of different reasons and I'm looking forward to re-reading it at some point to (hopefully) catch some details and clues that I missed this time around. Highly recommended for fans of thrillers, mysteries, suspense, contemporary fiction, and supernatural/fantasy!

Disclosure: I received a free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

The small town of Ames, Massachusetts is in a tailspin after Tommy Sanderson, 13 becomes a missing child. His two friends, Josh and Luis were with Tommy when he disappeared up on Split Rock, also called Devil's Rock by local kids. A sinister legend involving the area in which Tommy disappeared is rearing its ugly head.

Naturally questions arise. Did Jose and Luis, who admitted to sneaking beer up on the rock have anything to do with Tommy's disappearance? Is there any truth to the legend that involves the park and surrounding woods where Tommy disappeared? Are the accounts of people claiming to see someone's shadow seeing Tommy? Or could this be something more sinister?

Tommy's younger sister Kate, 11 seems to think so. She finds note paper with Tommy's writing and in his inimitable style in Tommy's room and in other parts of the house. Tommy had an alternating phobia of and attraction to and for zombies. He and his friends played Minecraft and often talked of zombies. Tommy was apparently obsessed with zombies. He filled his sketchbook with them and one appeared to be a distorted self portrait. Could his fear-obsession of and for these gruesome creatures possibly have played a part in his disappearance?

Tommy's desperate mother buys a home surveillance camera to capture the shadow figure she and others believe to be Tommy. Kate finds coins in Tommy's room that may or may not contain a cryptic clue. The children's maternal grandmother also has "Tommy sightings," or rather shadow sightings. The question is whether or not the shadow even exists; if so is it Tommy's shadow and what really happened to Tommy the night he vanished? And what of the boys' older friend, Arnold? Is he real? Are the stories he tells of what took place on the rock real or just legends? And what of the gruesome atrocity committed on a stranger? Could the stranger have had a hand in any of these bizarre goings on? And what about the heinous atrocities committed on a stranger? Could that stranger have had a hand in Tommy's disappearance? Was there any truth to what locals believed was a gruesome folk tale?

While admittedly I've never liked ghost stories, this one is well written. This is a taut psychological thriller that does weave in elements of the supernatural so skillfully that despite the horror scenes it makes for a slightly more palatable and very riveting story. Paul Tremblay is an excellent writer. That having been said, the story maintained my interest even though I didn't care for it. The two star rating is because I didn't like the story, but the writing was good.

This is a slower paced mystery about a missing 14-year-old boy, his devastated mother and his heartbroken sister. It is a good story but it is not a horror novel. Do not be led astray like me.

"A family is shaken to its core after the mysterious disappearance of a teenage boy in this eerie tale, a blend of literary fiction, psychological suspense, and supernatural horror from the author of A Head Full of Ghosts."

I think I missed the supernatural horror bits.

I listened to this book on audio and though it was too long and I drifted here and there, I never felt an urge to shut it off. I’d probably give it a 3 ½ but I’ll bump it up to a 4 because it was quite a bit better than “meh”.

The story revolves around what really happened the day (or was it night? The mind fails me once again) Tommy and his two pals went out to Devil’s Rock to do something . . . Tommy’s two buddies returned home safe and sound but Tommy did not. Now it’s up to Tommy’s mom to piece together exactly what happened. When Tommy’s diaries pages start appearing out of the ether she begins to question everything.

And I don’t blame her. I really felt compassion for Tommy’s mom. She was a well written character and even had some realistic flaws, eventually breaking down and losing her cool. I loved to read that. It made the story come alive for me.

Basically, the story is one long, slow reveal of what happened prior to that fateful day (evening?) at Devil’s Rock. It’s set in the present day but the past is shown via the diary entries and through flashbacks and that's all I'm going to say so I don't spoil the reveals for you.

It's an enjoyable thriller only marred by too much inane and repetitive dialogue between the boys. They are teenagers and their conversations always go a little like this:

Josh: Anyone up for Mindcraft?

Luis: Mindcraft is AWESOME man but dad says I need to get homework done tonight.

Tommy: Your dad is such a Hard-o! (I did not mean hard-on pervy spellcheck)

Josh: Chirps!

They have their own lingo, which is normal for most teen boys, but that doesn’t mean it’s fun to read and, believe me, it's even less fun to listen to. Almost immediately that lingo annoyed me and when the boys were together it never let up.

The narrator, Erin Bennett, does a decent job with the work but she's just a little too polished at times and I did feel pulled out of the story quite a few times, especially when she calls out a name before speaking their dialogue. I’m not sure if it was a narrator choice or if the book was written that way but it was off-putting and kind of strange.

The actual mystery is doled out slowly as it should be, I take no issue with that. I only wish the book had been pruned a bit where the silly conversations and sometimes repetitive scenes were involved.

Summary from Goodreads:

"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."

My Thoughts:

I don't even know how to begin sharing my thoughts on this book. It was a reading experience that I won't be forgetting about anytime in the near future-that is one great way to describe it! I went into this book expecting a thriller and you could definitely describe it that way. But it was also one of the most dark and disturbing books that I have read in a very long time. I tweeted about this book at one point while reading and I think that this describes it best: a dark and haunting read that was not always easy to read but hard to put down. That describes this book so perfectly in my opinion. I cannot tell you how horrifyingly real I found this book at times especially when the author talked about the way that this young boy pulled away a bit from his mother. Here she thought that she knew everything that was going on in his life and to find out otherwise was just terrifying for her. As a mother myself I can't even begin to tell you how hard this was for me to read. There were quite a few times where I just wanted to stop reading and set this book down. The author made this book so readable though and I just couldn't. I needed to see what was going to happen next even if I didn't really want to know. I don't know how to explain it any other way.

From the very beginning of this book, the author created this feeling where you know something bad is going to happen but you don't know what or how (well you kind of know if you read above summary but you are left wondering what else might happen). That feeling intensified throughout the entire book. It was so creepy and I was honestly worried at one point that I might end up with nightmares from this book. That is how spooky I found it to be. There were just all of these questions that the author was creating in regards to Tommy and what had happened that dark night.....it set such a dark tone and feeling to this book. I can't describe it any other way. The ending of this book had me reading at such a frantic pace because by that point I was so invested. I don't even know if I can share my thoughts on the ending in a way that makes sense without spoiling anything for anyone? It was good- very good and I felt that it fit with the story that the author had been telling perfectly. I was left with a few questions which really made me wish that I could discuss this with other readers. If you've read this book, please let me know what you think about the ending of this book! I want to know! It has been close to a week now since I've finished this book and I'm still thinking about it. That should tell you something!

Overall, I feel like this is a book that made me want to read more by this author. It wasn't an easy read especially for me as a mother of a pre-teen boy. It is one of those books that won't be for everyone and that is okay. I think that you should probably go into reading this one in the right frame of mind. Think Gillian Flynn and how dark her books can be. That's a decent comparison in my opinion although two very different kind of writers. The darkness of subject matter though is why I say that. I myself will be reading more by this author in the future for sure. I will also be waiting a decent amount of time and will mentally prepare myself. Ha! Funny but so very true. I would recommend this one but with a word of caution. Be ready for a dark and haunting read!

Bottom Line: A book that left me thinking about it for days.

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book thanks to the publisher as part of a TLC book tour.

Reading this book is a gutting experience. Paul Tremblay has based his latest book on what is perhaps any parent’s greatest fear: the loss of a child. Elizabeth Sanderson wakes one night to find her teenage son, Tommy, missing. His friends say he just wandered off in the woods and no one can find him. It’s as though he has just disappeared. Elizabeth comes to believe that his ghost is visiting her and leaving messages and there are rumors of a dark figure peering in people’s windows which corresponds to an old myth about the devil who inhabits the woods where he disappeared. But just like Tremblay’s novel A Headful of Ghosts, the true horror isn’t the supernatural but what people are capable of and how a family can too easily come unraveled. As the police detective thinks at one point (I’m paraphrasing): people tend to make surprisingly bad decisions and do so with surprising ease. This is no shockfest horror novel but a disturbing portrait of loss. I found this book hard to put down, I was so ensnared by its suspense. By not overplaying the supernatural, it made the events incredibly and terrifyingly possible.
If I had to complain about anything, it would be that a few of the characters that the narrator follows closely are ignored at the end and we don’t get a glimpse of how they have been affected by the events. But that quibble aside, I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes horror that makes them think.

There was a good mystery, considering the question that haunted every page was: What happened to Tommy? Though it was plain from the point a certain character made his appearance as to who was to blame, the author set in motion the how's and why's from there. This sometimes drug on a bit, but otherwise, was well done.

The details when it came to the characters thoughts, fears and actions was perfect. It made it easy for the reader to identify with each of them. Didn't think I could ever identify with a teenage boy, but there I was. The young adult hijinx, and uncertainty about social life, is something that we can all recall with lumps in our throats. It was in that where the author really focused, and easily convinced me why they would accept Arnold into the folds. Each boy is very different for the other. They have common likes and dislikes, but they're so different that I couldn't mistaken one for the other even if I tried. Basically, the characters were amazing, and real.

The setting is a small community, and the mystery takes on a bigger scale as the media comes into the fold. We are also given a glimpse into Elizabeth, the mother's, thinking. I thought hers was the most heartbreaking, and strong. Even trolls tried to lash out at her on the Internet and how she struggled internally with what was said, and what was happening around her at all times.

I enjoyed that the author put doubt in Kate's role in the story. To have a family member you think you can't trust when things are in chaos created some suspense part way through. I think the only thing that drug it down, for me, was the repetition and some of the long, drawn-out dialogue. The repetition being a description in Tommy's notebook and then the scene playing out through the p.o.v. of one of the boys and the fact that very few new discoveries were made during the repeated events.

CONCLUSION

The characters stood out so well that when I put this book down, it was as if they were living people. The development was flawless and their heartbreak palpable. I really enjoyed the writing style and even how the author took on the penmanship of a teenage boy during a few scenes. And like I said, the big question of "what happened to Tommy?" will haunt you to the very end.

In Disappearance at Devil’s Rock by Paul Tremblay, a teenage boy goes missing and a series of strange events indicates supernatural forces may have something to do with his disappearance.

Late one night, Elizabeth Sanderson receives the phone call that every parent dreads-her thirteen year old son Tommy has vanished from a sleepover with his friends Luis and Josh. The boys snuck out from Josh’s house with a backpack full of beer and hiked to an isolated group of rocks in nearby Borderland State Park. Josh and Luis lost sight of Tommy and after searching for hours, the boys returned to Josh’s house with high hopes that Tommy returned without them. A widespread search turns up no sign of the missing boy and Elizabeth quickly becomes convinced that Tommy is dead after she sees what she believes is her son’s ghost. Mystifying happenings at home and eerie sightings around the neighborhood seem to corroborate her hunch, but startling entries from Tommy’s diary take the investigation in an unexpected direction that is quickly confirmed by new revelations from Josh and Luis during subsequent interviews. Despite this new information, Tommy’s whereabouts remain a mystery and Elizabeth holds out hope that her son might still be alive.

Living in a small town where everyone seems to know everyone, Elizabeth has no reason to distrust Tommy or his eleven year old sister Kate. Despite the shocking call in the middle of the night, she does not think anything sinister has happened to Tommy and initially, she assumes that her son is lost somewhere in the vast park. After searching for hours, Elizabeth is exhausted when she sees what she believes is Tommy’s ghost and she is certain her son is dead. However, within a few days, her despair turns to hope when pages from his diary begin mysteriously appearing and reports start pouring in about strange shadows appearing in townspeople’s windows late at night.

Initially, the boys’ late night adventure in the state park appears to be nothing but a harmless escapade. Tommy’s early diary entries are the first indication that the friends’ summer activities were not quite as innocent as their parents believed. After the police re-interview Josh and Luis, alarming information begins to emerge about what the friends were doing in the Borderlands. After Elizabeth finds the remainder of Tommy’s diary passages, the horrifying truth is finally revealed, but her hopes remain high that her son will be found alive.

Although a little slow-paced, Disappearance at Devil’s Rock is a spellbinding mystery that is impossible to put down. The characters are multi-faceted and their reactions to the various situations are completely believable. The storyline is complex and multi-layered and Paul Tremblay masterfully keeps readers guessing whether Tommy’s disappearance is the result of supernatural forces or earthly foul play. A chilling, suspense-laden mystery that I highly recommend to fans of the genre.

I received a complimentary copy for review.

Paul Tremblay is undoubtedly one of the best horror writers out there right now, and as a huge fan of A Head Full of Ghosts, I’ve been eagerly anticipating Disappearance at Devil’s Rock.

Fourteen-year-old Tommy Sanderson disappears without a trace in the nearby woods of his small suburban town, leaving his mother, his sister and his two best friends reeling. As the investigation into Tommy’s disappearance unfolds, it becomes clear that his best friends — who were with him that night — may know more than they are letting on. Meanwhile, his mother and sister see strange shadows lurking around the house and begin finding Tommy’s eerie journal entries on the floor, prompting them to wonder if he (or his ghost) is trying to tell them something.

Like A Head Full of Ghosts, Disappearance at Devil’s Rock teeters that fine line where creepy events could just as easily have a supernatural or logical explanation. And also like its predecessor, it uses horror as a vehicle to explore the American nuclear family. Whereas AHFOG uses the possession sub-genre, DADR uses zombies.

I’m not the kind of reader who needs everything to be tied up with a nice bow, but I do wish the pieces of this story came together in a more satisfying way, as they did in AHFOG. I wanted a little bit more from the resolution, and I had hoped that Tremblay would provide more commentary on the metaphors he planted.

Overall, this is a genuinely creepy novel that takes some unexpectedly dark turns that even had a total gorehound like me grossed out, but for the most part the horror is psychological; there were a few scenes that had me terrified of what would happen next, and that’s alway a fun experience as a horror fan.

If you enjoy the horror genre, make sure Tremblay is on your radar. His smart, thoughtful writing and his impressive knack for authentically embodying the minds of his characters — in this case a teenage boy — place him a step well above most of his peers.

Thanks so much to the folks at HarperCollins/William Morrow for sending me an advanced digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I was first introduced to Tremblay’s writing through A Head Full of Ghosts, thanks to Stephen King’s ranting and raving. That novel was the first in a while to truly put an ounce of fear into my life. Now we arrive at Disappearance at Devil’s Rock, which is called a horror novel by some. I don’t quite agree with this but I digress.

The plot revolves around a family whose lives have been turned upside down after the disappearance of their son. Elizabeth Sanderson receives a call from one of her son Tommy’s best friends and comes to find out that Tommy has vanished without a trace in a local park. As time goes on and no new evidence comes to light, Elizabeth and her daughter Kate become increasingly afraid that Tommy will never be found. Josh and Luis, Tommy’s best friends, begin to slowly leak details of what may occurred but may not be telling the whole truth. On top of that, mysterious occurrences start happening around the Sanderson household. Pages from Tommy’s journal begin appearing randomly in the living room, detailing things Elizabeth did not know about her son and making her think that he may be somehow attempting to contact them. The search continues and the truth becomes more clear, but it may not be the answer they are looking for.

Tremblay did a magnificent job keeping me on the edge of my seat. I always felt that I was right on the cusp of figuring out the ending but then the story takes a hard left turn. The cast of characters were well drawn out and the eerie environment did keep the suspense ramped up. I recommend this as more of a mystery/thriller with a bit of horror thrown in. Definitely not as scary as AHFOG but read it if you have enjoyed his previous works.

Original review and others can be found at: [...]

DISAPPEARANCE AT DEVIL'S ROCK makes you wonder all the way through: is the supernatural at work in this story or not? Is there some sort of force haunting this family or is humanity evil enough on its own? The ending literally made me ache, I felt so deeply for the characters. Others may not even understand the horror of it if they weren't following the diary pages inserted into the book as closely as the main characters. Tremblay handles this novel much like his last, A HEAD FULL OF GHOSTS, like an investigation. This writing style took a little getting used to, but was completely worth it! Five stars.

Summer is officially here but if you’re heading out to your local state park for some hiking, camping, or (if you’re a high schooler) some late-night ragers without adult supervision, Paul Tremblay’s Disappearance at Devil’s Rock will make you think twice.

Late one August night, 13-year-old Tommy Sanderson inexplicably leaves his two best friends behind and runs into the woods of Borderland State Park in Massachusetts. The story opens with every parent’s very worst nightmare: an unexpected late-night phone call telling you your child is missing. Tommy’s mother, Elizabeth, has a bad news phone call before—nine years prior, when her ex-husband (and Tommy’s father) died in a car crash. Instantly she—and readers—are placed in a state of heightened tension that rarely lets up. Like a meteor’s crash, Tommy’s disappearance slams into Elizabeth and Tommy’s kid sister Kate and the impact radiates through his circle of friends, his small community, and the world beyond through social media and cable news.

But what really happened to Tommy on that night is more unsettling than anyone can imagine.

In Tremblay’s 2015 novel A Head Full of Ghosts, the main narrative was punctuated with “non-fiction” horror blog entries from a young woman. Here, we discover more about Tommy and his two friends through his diary entries. Tremblay exceeds at giving characters distinct voices—especially, it seems, teens. And he does so in a way that never seems too forced with references to pop culture and slang, which is no small feat. There are just enough mentions of Minecraft, Snapchat, and zombie movies to keep the story grounded and paint a picture of three kids uncertain of their standing in society and even within their own group.

Tommy, especially, is the loner of his group. Or the most lonely. The kid with the dead dad he can’t talk to his mother about, whose friends don’t quite get it. Those friends, Josh and Luis, have their own insecurities, too, and the trio’s lazy summer days of bike rides, first sips of stolen beer, and the impending doom of high school reminded me of Stephen King’s The Body, adapted for film as Stand By Me. So when Tommy’s journal starts mentioning that he and his buds met an older guy named Arnold, my stomach knotted with dread because obviously Tommy is going to be vulnerable to this stranger who claims to be a seer and knows more things about Tommy and the teen hangout nicknamed Devil’s Rock than he should.

The diary interludes and chapter titles propel the story forward in a story that is sometimes a slow-burner. Elizabeth is understandably having a hard time holding it together as she tries to convince the case detective that something more sinister and possibly spectral is going on, but it gets frustrating to watch Elizabeth drinking and arguing with her daughter, especially when we view Elizabeth from Kate’s preteen, angry, and confused perspective.

Tremblay also gives readers a window to the world outside the Sanderson house, providing smart takes on a perfect storm of a news story about a missing white boy from a small town and the Internet Age urban legend of Slenderman (well, Shadowman, here.) When people start tweeting about this “Shadowman” looking in their windows and running across their lawns at night, is it mass psychosis or something real? Is the history of Devil’s Rock truly diabolical? Are “felt presence” theories true? While not quite as meta as A Head Full of Ghosts, Disappearance at Devil’s Rock is aware of its tropes and succeeds in twisting them into disturbing new shapes.

While A Head Full of Ghosts hit closer to home for me personally, painfully so, at times, I think Disappearance at Devil’s Rock will have an even broader appeal. And not just because Stephen King himself is now such a vocal Tremblay fan. Because when we do find out what happened to Tommy on that August night? Or a version of what happened to Tommy on that night? Tremblay left me speechless, breathless, deeply unsettled and impossibly impressed. I love being genuinely scared by a book, so Disappearance at Devil’s Rock left me with a giant smile, too. And questions, so many questions. The novel itself lingers, like a felt presence all its own. In a summer of great horror releases, this one is among the very best.

After reading the eerie and creepy A Head Full of Ghosts, I jumped to request this title when I saw it was by the same author.

This author nails the young teen boy mentality and has a firm grasp on the insecurities of middle school. I laughed several times at the conversations between Tommy and his friends. As a mother, I could certainly identify with Elizabeth and the devastation and helplessness she felt after her son’s disappearance – it’s a parent’s worst nightmare. This book will certainly make you question if you really know what your kids are up to. I also found it interesting how different family members deal with Tommy’s disappearance.

As with the author’s first novel, this story also contains some spine-tingling, tension-filled, look-behind-you-and-make-sure-you’re-alone moments. You’ll also want to make sure your window blinds are closed. I literally couldn’t turn the pages fast enough in some places. On the other hand, I also felt as if some of the writing was repetitive – reading about the same scene from a different POV – and found myself skimming through those sections.

This is an author to watch – I’ll be looking for future books by him. Highly recommend to fans of supernatural thrillers.

Thanks to Edelweiss and William Morrow for the digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Disappearance at Devil's Rock is the second book I have read by Paul Tremblay and it did not disappoint. Tremblay is one of the few authors I have found who can take a story line that you think you have read ad nauseam and make it entirely his own. The clue that I think that I have when I begin the story, just left me in the dust.

Three teenage boys go out into the woods. Only two come out. When Tommy Sanderson goes missing, it is almost as if the night itself has swallowed him whole. When strange things start happening around the park and outside of people's windows near the park at night, the re-named Devil's Rock may be more than just a name forged from some middle school superstition...

"Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear the very stones prate my whereabout - and take the present horror from this moment which now suits it." - MacBeth.

This book had me guessing nearly until the end. Written in a style that is engrossing and subtly poignant, Tremblay's prose is one that you won't soon forget. I, for one, can't wait to see what he has for us next.

I received a copy of this book from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review and here it is.

Wow! Paul Tremblay has impressed me again. I absolutely love his writing style.

After I read A Head Full of Ghosts, I just knew I needed to read this book. I wrote on my "gift lift." (A list full of things I want as presents, since my boyfriend never knows what to get me.) I even put a little star beside the book so he'd know it was a top priority. Although he did not buy this book for me, one of our friends bought it as a birthday present for me after he showed them my list.

On to the book itself. It has much of the same feeling that A Head Full of Ghosts had where you can't tell what the hell is going on. What's real, what isn't real? We only ever get part of the story, and not from the most reliable of characters. Or maybe they are reliable. Who knows? Speaking of characters, the characters are very well developed. They all have major flaws, but are likable. Tremblay has a real knack for creating tension and suspense. The story slowly unravels over the course of the book, always revealing just enough to keep you wondering. Even in the end I'm still wondering.

All in all, I'd say this way just as good if not better than A Head Full of Ghosts. I'm looking forward to any other novels Tremblay might write!

This book is unbelievably disappointing. There’s a set up for some nice concepts that never come to fruition. The narrative is about 95% dialogue driven and what parts aren’t are internal monologue. A lot of it is from teenage perspectives so it gets pretty annoying and unbearable at times. I stuck with it because I thought it was going somewhere but in the end it didn’t. No mystery really, it’s exactly what it seems.

disclaimer – i received a copy of this book from william morrow through the goodreads first reads program in exchange for an honest review.

disappearance at devil's rock is hard to quantify. it's a mystery, a thriller, and a supernatural horror story all at the same time. a lot of authors would have a hard time blending all those seemingly disparate styles into a coherent whole but paul tremblay not only does it, he does it with care for the story he's telling and a singular style.

tremblay has written genuine characters who reach out from the pages to draw you in, making you a part of their individual stories as well as part of the story as a whole. there are multiple points of view, which can become overbearing and tedious as you try to keep track of who is who, but each flows seamlessly into the other presenting a cohesive whole that builds the suspense and heightens the mystery.

there are two levels of horror at work in disappearance at devil's rock. there's the horror of the missing person's case and the reality that life has to continue even while it feels like the world is ending. the horror of knowing that the search for a loved one who has disappeared can in any sense become mundane, can become commonplace, can become old news. then there's the horror of what's going on in the background. what really happened to cause the disappearance and what's really REAL. wondering what you can believe in, what you can trust. it's hard to judge which is more terrifying, the idea that the worst moments in our lives can become banal or the realization that there just might be more out there than we ever thought possible.

five out of five stars

REVIEW: DISAPPEARANCE AT DEVIL'S ROCK by Paul Tremblay

I have heard so much positive praise of the author's A HEAD FULL OF GHOSTS [2015] so I was eager to read his newest. Every expectation was fulfilled. DISAPPEARANCE AT DEVIL'S ROCK is an exceptional novel, unforgettable--and a strong Best of 2016.

Beginning with a knock-out reader's hook--the dreaded after-midnight phone call that is every parent's nightmare, the action and emotional impact is literally non-stop. Instead of immediate closure ("your child/spouse/parent is dead") in which the worst has already happened and the grief must begin, in this novel the grief, fear, anxiety, is open-ended: Elizabeth's son's best friend since first grade calls in the early AM, on the landline, to ask if Tommy' s come home. Three friends had been at a sleepover at one's home; but they had lost Tommy in the forest of the State Park wrapping around their Massachusetts community.

As the story unfolds, relationships are tested: Elizabeth's with daughter Kate, and Elizabeth's mother Janice with both Elizabeth and Kate. The friendship of the two remaining boys, Josh and Luis, is maximally stressed, and as reminiscences unfold, leading to a powerfully impacting denouement, readers--and characters--learn of the manipulated events of the summer that drive wedges among the boys and the horrifying consequence which inevitably resulted in a disappearance at Devil's Rock.

Disclaimer: I received an advance digital copy for review purposes only, offered by the publisher. No remuneration was exchanged.
The above review constitutes my honest and impartial opinion of the book.

Goddammit. This book could have been so much better. I absolutely loved Tremblay's previous work, A HEAD FULL OF GHOSTS, but this one fell flat for me.

Let's start with what I did like. The story itself was pretty good. Teenage son, Tommy, and his friends meet a twenty-something whom they begin hanging out with at Devil's Rock ( a spot within Borderlands State Park). When Tommy runs into the woods and disappears, his family and friends are left with nothing but questions. This mystery, much like that of the Netflix series, Stranger Things, is what drives this mystery novel.

The characters are pretty good, the dialog is fine in most spots, and the creepy kid standing outside my window trick that Tremblay employs creates a bit of a 'Salem's Lot tickle in my fright bone (which is very effective).

Unfortunately, unlike Stranger Things, this novel is written in a way that refuses to let you get close enough to the characters or story to become fully invested, which is a damn shame. The style Tremblay decided to write this in...man, it just killed momentum and feel. When I read a story, I like to feel like the author has pulled me into this world and that I'm right there experiencing it with them. It's that old writing adage "show, don't tell". Any editor I've worked with me would have slapped me in the head and said, write it right. With that said, it just felt like I was reading a screenplay, especially at the end with the interviews. It seemed that every time Tremblay loosened up a bit and let us in, it was great, but those moments were lacking far too much for me to really enjoy this book.

Over all, this would probably make a really cool movie, but the novel didn't work as well for me. Still, Tremblay's talent and the parts I did like kept me from putting the book down and walking away like I wanted to at times.

I give Disappearance at Devil's Rock 2.5 stars.

Not recommended for everyone, but readers who enjoy alternate approach to storytelling might dig this one more.

Hmmmm, I finished this up yesterday, the same day that I started it. That alone says it is a book that was hard to put down. Having said that I can't say that I loved it.

That sounds strange to say about a hard to put down book but the story just was hard for me to lose myself in. I found the characters to be quite unreal and I didn't care what happened to them. The creepy factor was certainly strong throughout the book, I enjoyed that. I was jumping at the natural thumps and bangs that happen in a house while I was reading. The creepiness and suspense is what kept me turning pages into the wee hours of the morning.

If you like creepy suspense, give it a read.

Tremblay has this way about him that is especially evident with his last two offerings. He can create something so real and human and familiar but with a slight edge of the surreal, the off, that worms it's way into your head and makes you paranoid about that familiar, like, say you're at home, in that space that you know inside and out but when the lights go off it just feels wrong, as if there is something there watching you. Lake Mungo would be the most obvious touchstone to this read, but the influence isn't obvious. This, following up A Head Full of Ghosts, makes Paul Tremblay a guy you just want to follow.

What makes a scary story? Vampires and ghouls? Zombies and demons? Or the real dangers of the world, like war, torture and murder? Paul Tremblay’s latest novel, DISAPPEARANCE AT DEVIL’S ROCK, examines the terrifying disappearance of a child and adds the kind of monster that really walks among us.

Thirteen-year-old Tommy Sanderson is, by all accounts, a normal boy. He has spent most of the summer with his two best friends, Josh and Luis, playing Minecraft and riding bikes. Late one night, his mother, Elizabeth, receives a frantic call from the boys telling her that they “lost” Tommy in the woods and have no idea where he is or why he ran off. So begins a long search for Tommy, starting at the place most people know as Split Rock but that comes to be called Devil’s Rock as, in the coming weeks, a dark legend grows around Tommy and why he is gone.

As Elizabeth, her 11-year-old daughter, Katie, and her mother, Janice, assist in the investigation and search, they are tormented not only by what Tommy’s disappearance could mean, but by the thought that a supernatural element might be involved. Are Elizabeth’s visions of Tommy real or just a product of her fear? Are the journal pages she finds being left by Tommy? If so, how? Or is there someone messing with her mind and emotions?

Tremblay gives readers the perspective of the boys in parallel with that of Tommy’s family, and so a new story, just as frightening, emerges. Earlier in the summer, the boys met a young man named Arnold (Joyce Carol Oates fans will enjoy the reference) who charms them with “hobo coins” and plies them with beer. He is strange but seems to understand the boys, giving them his undivided attention. Tommy especially succumbs to Arnold’s ideas and suggestions. Eventually he leads the children toward a horrific moment of violence and insanity that results in Tommy’s disappearance and the ensuing trauma. The narrative of the relationship among the friends and Arnold, and the events leading up to Tommy’s running off into the woods, is just as scary, dark and suspenseful as the aftermath when the boys try to hide their terrible secret. Tremblay intertwines and balances the two sides of the story deftly.

DISAPPEARANCE AT DEVIL’S ROCK is a scary story: tense and creepy, blending a brutal realism with more than a mere suggestion of the supernatural. The evils at play here are varied --- some fantastically sinister, others sadly mundane --- and Tremblay does a great job letting readers sort them out. Most of all, however, this is a story about grief: the grief that Tommy has carried with him, and the grief that Elizabeth feels after he goes missing. It is this grief that invites and creates the monsters that prey on the lonely, the sad and the uncertain. This novel is a page-turner; chilling, unnerving and psychologically rich, it will keep readers guessing and entertained.

Reviewed by Sarah Rachel Egelman

Reminiscent of Henry James's Turn of the Screw with a little bit of M. Night Shamylan's 6th Sense and flat-out fantastic suspense thriller writing. The narrative style works so well and you're always questioning what you believe. The ending does your investment in this book justice. You'll feel satisfied and ... I deleted the emotion because I don't want to ruin it. By the way, be careful reading at night in your house alone if you're susceptible to over thinking and/or freaking yourself out over little noises -- especially if you live near a wood.

This book successfully pulled off the difficult task of maintaining supernatural believe-ability in a real-world environment, with characters who behave more or less appropriately. In other words, these events could happen to your neighbor - or you - and wouldn't be difficult to accept. There will be a couple minor content spoilers - not plot spoilers - below.

I had not read Paul Tremblay's "Head Full of Ghosts" but knew it got some buzz so I figured I'd check this out - I'm not usually a fan of horror/thrillers that involve missing kids, but the book description seemed to indicate it wouldn't be anything too visceral, so I took a chance and it was a good read. It was a book I wanted to return too, and I had to make an effort to stop reading each night - and I got through it very quickly.

It was creepy and unsettling - both good traits. This is not straight-up horror but is more a psychological thriller that especially used tricks of narration to keep the reader off-balance.

Tremblay (and I don't think this is a spoiler) deftly changed the reader's perspective to a variety of close "third person" narrations - but you're never quite sure who's telling the truth. You only see it through one set of eyes at a time. This keeps the reader guessing because you can't trust anyone - but it's not dishonest, or a "cheat" on Tremblay's part. He's not hiding information from you, because the character is the narrator and they don't have information to work with. There are a variety of red herrings but none that seem thrown in just to distract. It all moves the plot along.

Part of the creepiness is because of how awful the situation of a missing child is presented, especially in the era of social media. That aspect reads realistically and I think it would not be pleasant for any parent who's stressed out about this sort of event.

The characters are believable - and again, that is because of how Tremblay shifts the point of view. Things are happening just off to the corner of our eye that he doesn't quite allow us to focus on. The supernatural edge is a shifting threat and you're never quite able to put your finger on what's happening. The children especially - three boys and a girl - act like real middle-schoolers. That's a challenge for writers, because kids in books often sound overly wise for their years. I thought Tremblay did a good job here.

The ending is solid - it provides an honest payoff. Thrillers are probably the hardest book to conclude on a satisfying note, and this does a good job. Not great or perfect, maybe, but honest within the story's logical parameters.

The one content SPOILER that I think is necessary is that violence is implied or offscreen - so it's not a gruesome story, it's an unsettling story. There is no sexual violence. I do not read/enjoy books with violence directed against women in any setting, but I took a chance on this one because it seemed like it was boys-being-boys, with bad results, and I'm more okay with male-oriented violence in my horror/thriller selections (feel free to apply any dime-store psychology). That's the case here. So I provide that spoiler so fans of plot-driven, character-driven thrillers can expect to "enjoy" this without any gruesome violence-for-violence's-sake shock value. I would have been disappointed if that had happened - because I rarely enjoy that content - so I provide that information here.

Contemporary Suspense

Elizabeth Sanderson receives the devastating news that every parent fears late one summer night: Tommy, her thirteen-year-old son vanished without a trace in the woods of the state park that is nearby.

Elizabeth and her eleven-year-old daughter, Kate struggle to understand and comprehend Tommy’s disappearance as the search isn’t yielding any answers for them. Their sorrow is compounded by both anger and frustration and making them feel both alone and helpless. The local police nor the state police have been able to uncover any leads. Josh and Luis, are friends of Tommy and also the last to see him before he vanished. They may also not be telling the whole truth about the night they were in Borderland State Park where they said they were hanging out at a landmark they renamed Devil’s Rock.

Elizabeth is completely unprepared when a series of strange events follow as she is living in all-too-real nightmare. Kate and other local residents claim to see a shadowy figure that seems to be peering through their windows in the dead of night and if that wasn’t bad enough Elizabeth is convinced the wraithlike apparition she saw is of Tommy that materialized in her bedroom. Suddenly random pages torn from Tommy’s journals start to mysteriously appear. The entries also reveal a teenager that is introverted and obsessed with the phantasmagoric. One that is also obsessed with the father he lost, a father that was killed in a drunk-driving accident a decade earlier. Tommy is also completely fascinated with the folktale that involves the devil and the woods of Borderland and the coming zombie “pocketclips” and a horrific incident that Tommy is convinced connects them all.

As the search continues and grows more desperate the implications of what happened become more ominous and sinister and no one is prepared for the shocking truth of what exactly happened that night at Devil’s Rock.

This is a story that stays with the reader long after they are finished. As each chapter unfolds new details in the lives of the characters it brings to vivid life the nightmare of what a parent and family faces when a child disappears. The book also takes the reader on a roller coaster of a ride that is full of twists and turns and will have readers scrambling to figure out just what really happened the night Tommy vanished. The twist ending is one that readers will never see coming.

Fantastic read. Tremblay does a wonderful job of taking the ordinary things in life and making them absolutely terrifying. He completely nails the teenage voice, which is hard to do. The book never slows down but doesn't feel rushed either, and I found my allegiances (and predictions on what had happened) constantly shifting. Tremblay has always been a great writer but is really hitting his stride with these last two books.

No idea how this is getting such good reviews. Horrible. If you're currently reading and waiting for it to get better - stop. Put it down. Unlikeable characters, unrealistic dialogue (and a lot of it). 80% of the book is modern little boys talking about what the author thinks modern little boys talk about. I was cringing the whole way through. The way he tries to make the little sister cool by being into 90s alternative is embarrassing. A lot of questions are left unanswered. The book could be 100 pages long and have the same plot if the irrelevant teen boy dialogue was cut out.

Coming off the huge triumph of his novel A HEADFUL OF GHOSTS (a book Stephen King himself said scared the hell out him) Mr. Tremblay’s newest novel, DISAPPEARANCE AT DEVIL’S ROCK is a most worthy successor. This is a masterfully crafted combination of psychological and supernatural horror in which the mother of a teenage boy receives the ultimate parents’ nightmare news that her son has disappeared. Thirteen-year-old Tommy Sanderson just vanished without a clue from a local woodland park, and it seems that the boys who were with Tommy that night might not be telling the truth about what happened that night. Tommy’s mother Elizabeth and her young daughter Kate struggle to live through the nightmare but things just keep getting worse, with Kate seeing ghostly images of her son materializing in her bedroom, and finding pages torn from Tommy’s journal that appear randomly, journal pages that reveal Tommy’s hidden obsession with his late father’s death in a drunk-driving accident and, even more concerning, Tommy’s interest in the occult, in particular a local folktale concerning a monster lurking in the park from which he disappeared. With insidious escalating tension, the novel builds to ever greater realizations about what really happened to Tommy, and the truth is absolutely horrific.

Will Paul Tremblay ever again approach the greatness that is Head Full of Ghosts? He doesn't here. Since reading HFoG, I've read the two Sleep books and this one. The man can turn a phrase and make you laugh and grab your attention. But this book I found lacking in structure and odd in pacing. The story is grim, and there is nothing to lighten or redeem the darkness. Just a sad, sad story.

Review copy

Disappearance at Devil's Rock: A Novel is a gut-wrenching story of every parent's nightmare. A day when their child does not come home. This time it happens in the Sanderson family, where the mom, Elizabeth, is doing the best she can, raising soon-to-be-fourteen-year-old Tommy and his almost-twelve-year-old sister, Kate.

Please give me a moment to explain what Disappearance at Devil's Rock is not. This is not a gore fest of a horror story. This is not an "and they lived happily ever after" fairy tale.

What Disappearance at Devil's Rock is is a solid tale, deftly told, of one family's response when one of their own goes missing.

One of the things I liked about Paul Tremblay' story-telling is his familiarity with what his young characters are into; Minecraft, Instagram, Snapchat and Tommy's obsession with the zombie apocalypse or as he refers to it in his writings, the zombie pocketclips.

The writing itself is a cut above. I got a kick out of their Nana referring "to the two of them as Mutt and Jeff. Kate has no idea what that means, what the reference is from, and whether Mutt or Jeff is the short one." It's the small things like this that take a good story and elevates it to an even better one.

Disappearance at Devil's Rock is just as draining for the reader as it is for the characters in the story, and that's the way it should be. By the end of the novel nearly every question is answered. There are a couple of secrets left untold, but as a whole this was a very satisfying read.

Disappearance at Devil's Rock: A Novel, published by William Morrow, is available in hardback, paperback, e-book, and multiple audio formats.

Paul Tremblay is the author of A Head Full of Ghosts, The Little Sleep, No Sleep till Wonderland, Swallowing a Donkey's Eye, and Floating Boy and the Girl Who Couldn't Fly (co-written with Stephen Graham Jones). In addition he is the author of the short story collection In the Mean Time. His essays and short fiction have appeared in the Los Angeles Times and numerous "year's best" anthologies. He is the co-editor of four anthologies including Creatures: Thirty Years of Monster Stories (with John Langan). Paul is the president of the board of directors for the Shirley Jackson Awards. He lives outside of Boston, Massachusetts, and has a master's degree in Mathematics. You can find him online at[...]

Three boys entered the woods of Borderland State Park and headed to Split Rock, renamed Devil’s Rock. Two boys returned home while the fate of the third boy is unknown. Park rangers and state police searched extensively for the missing boy but it wasn’t until the boy’s diary was found and read that police learned another person was involved. The two boys finally admitted that the other person was an adult who had bought beer for them and had them commit a deadly crime. But where was the missing boy?

Terrible book! Why would a grown man want to pal around with middle schoolers and why would they want to include him in their group?

Although the title makes the novel sound like a Hardy Boys book, and the concentration on teen-agers would seem to skew it toward a young adult audience, this is a book that has adults as its target audience, and rightfully so. The theme of losing a child under mysterious circumstances is one that all parents will find frightening, and the depiction of the mother of the missing child gets all the notes right. There's an interesting balance of the psychological and the supernatural here, though the supernatural is more suggested than real. It's an "out of the corner of your eye" kind of book, and, though it gets off to a slow start, the development is careful and precise, leading to a dramatic yet ambiguous climax. The dialogue between the kids is spot-on, and there's a description of a corpse that will have you smelling it. The author investigates the same kind of family dynamic that he did in "A Head Full of Ghosts," and if you liked that book you should enjoy this one as well. Quiet and disturbing, reminiscent of the works of Charles L. Grant at his best.