Sweetest Darkness
Sep 2024 · Holiday House
Ebook
304
Pages
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About this ebook
A teenage psychic is drawn deep into the honeycomb of an abandoned hotel—and into a cat-and-mouse game with a predatory entity—in this riveting new supernatural horror novel.
"SO SCARY, IT GIVES DARKNESS A BAD NAME! When I finished the last page, I realized I was still shivering."—R.L. STINE, author of Goosebumps and Fear Street
Everyone in Gypsum, Texas knows the Hotel Alvarado changes at night—especially Quinn. A teenage clairvoyant, he’s been having dreams about it… dreams that call him to its dark, abandoned halls. The hotel is a monument to the town’s more prosperous past, when celebrities flocked to the mineral spas and films were shot in the desert. The Great Depression killed all of that, it killed the Alvarado, and frankly it killed Gypsum, too. Now, when the sun goes down, things no longer living stir deep within its creaking depths.
But the dreams are relentless. When Quinn braves the hotel’s darkness with his best friend June and unrequited love Selena, looking for answers, he gets only one: ghosts aren’t the scariest thing lurking inside the Alvarado (although they’re there, cold and restless and angry).
No. He’s been called by something worse: a predatory, inhuman entity that threatens to wipe Gypsum off the map, along with everyone in it. And wrongly—accidentally—he’s let it out. It takes the shape of a handsome young man. It walks. It talks. It laughs. It can even make you laugh. But its appetite for death can never be sated.
Quinn has always had the power to see the future… can he find the power to change it?
Named to the Spirit of Texas Reading List
"Mesmeric. Hauntingly beautiful. A must-read for anyone who dares to venture into the abyss."—Robin Alvarez, author of When Oceans Rise
"Spooky. Scary. Mysterious. Twisty."—A. Lee Martinez, award-winning author of A Namless Witch
"SO SCARY, IT GIVES DARKNESS A BAD NAME! When I finished the last page, I realized I was still shivering."—R.L. STINE, author of Goosebumps and Fear Street
Everyone in Gypsum, Texas knows the Hotel Alvarado changes at night—especially Quinn. A teenage clairvoyant, he’s been having dreams about it… dreams that call him to its dark, abandoned halls. The hotel is a monument to the town’s more prosperous past, when celebrities flocked to the mineral spas and films were shot in the desert. The Great Depression killed all of that, it killed the Alvarado, and frankly it killed Gypsum, too. Now, when the sun goes down, things no longer living stir deep within its creaking depths.
But the dreams are relentless. When Quinn braves the hotel’s darkness with his best friend June and unrequited love Selena, looking for answers, he gets only one: ghosts aren’t the scariest thing lurking inside the Alvarado (although they’re there, cold and restless and angry).
No. He’s been called by something worse: a predatory, inhuman entity that threatens to wipe Gypsum off the map, along with everyone in it. And wrongly—accidentally—he’s let it out. It takes the shape of a handsome young man. It walks. It talks. It laughs. It can even make you laugh. But its appetite for death can never be sated.
Quinn has always had the power to see the future… can he find the power to change it?
Named to the Spirit of Texas Reading List
"Mesmeric. Hauntingly beautiful. A must-read for anyone who dares to venture into the abyss."—Robin Alvarez, author of When Oceans Rise
"Spooky. Scary. Mysterious. Twisty."—A. Lee Martinez, award-winning author of A Namless Witch
About the author
Leslie Lutz loves writing about haunted water. If it’s got a tentacle, or a water ghost, or a near-drowning, she’s probably going to write about it. She is the author of Fractured Tide, which won the Frisco First Chapter Contest, and has written short fiction and poetry published in several journals, including Orca Literary Journal, Kaaterskill Basin Literary Journal, Typishly, The Lyric, and Raintown Review. She lives in Fort Worth, Texas, and when she’s not writing, you can find her watching B-horror movies, scuba diving, or taking care of chickens.
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