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Reprieve : a novel / by Mattson, James Han,author.;
"On April 27, 1997, four contestants make it to the final cell of the Quigley House, a full-contact haunted escape room in Lincoln, Nebraska, made famous for its monstrosities, booby-traps, and ghoulishly costumed actors. If the group can endure these horrors without shouting the safe word, "reprieve," they'll win a substantial cash prize--a startling feat accomplished only by one other group in the house's long history. But before they can complete the challenge, a man breaks into the cell and kills one of the contestants. Those who were present on that fateful night lend their points of view: Kendra Brown, a teenager who's been uprooted from her childhood home after the sudden loss of her father; Leonard Grandton, a desperate and impressionable hotel manager caught in a series of toxic entanglements; and Jaidee Charoensuk, a gay international student who came to the United States in a besotted search for his former English teacher. As each character's journey unfurls and overlaps, deceits and misunderstandings fueled by obsession and prejudice are revealed--forcing all to reckon with the ways in which their beliefs and actions contributed to a horrifying catastrophe. A startlingly soulful exploration of complicity and masquerade, Reprieve combines the psychological tension of classic horror with searing social criticism, and seamlessly threads together trial transcripts, evidence descriptions, and deeply layered individual narratives to present a chilling portrait of this tangled American life"--
Subjects: Horror fiction.; Psychological fiction.; Escape room games; Haunted houses (Amusements); Murder; Prejudices;

Invisible girl : a novel / by Jewell, Lisa,author.;
"Owen Pick's life is falling apart. In his thirties, a virgin, and living in his aunt's spare bedroom, he has just been suspended from his job as a geography teacher after accusations of sexual misconduct, which he strongly denies. Searching for professional advice online, he is inadvertently sucked into the dark world of incel-involuntary celibate-forums, where he meets the charismatic, mysterious, and sinister Bryn. Across the street from Owen lives the Fours family, headed by mom Cate, a physiotherapist, and dad Roan, a child psychologist. But the Fours family have a bad feeling about their neighbor Owen. He's a bit creepy and their teenaged daughter swears he followed her home from the train station one night. Meanwhile, young Saffyre Maddox spent three years as a patient of Roan Fours. Feeling abandoned when their therapy ends, she searches for other ways to maintain her connection with him, following him in the shadows and learning more than she wanted to know about Roan and his family. Then, on Valentine's night, Saffyre Maddox disappears-and the last person to see her alive is Owen Pick."--
Subjects: Thrillers (Fiction); Psychological fiction.; Missing persons; Neighbors; Introverts; Suspects (Criminal investigation); Sex offenders; Electronic discussion groups;

Cemetery Kids don't die. [graphic novel] / by Thompson, Zac,author.; Irizarri, Daniel,illustrator.; Peer, Brittany,colourist.; Schall, Gegê,illustrator.; AndWorld Design (Firm),letterer.;
"The twenty-first century sucks hard, but it's been made somewhat tolerable by the latest media innovation to finally unseat the iPhone. Enter the Dreamwave: the first gaming console played entirely while you sleep. Now the obsession of millions around the globe, it's also the one point of solace for four friends whose lives have been marred by trauma and dysfunction. Together, this group of ultra-online "Cemetery Kids" spend their nights roaming the open world of the most immersive and brutal horror game ever created: Nightmare Cemetery. Together they seek to dethrone an enigmatic humanoid monster known only as the King of Sleep. Which was fun--until one of them doesn't wake up ... and finds their consciousness locked inside a horror game that is anything but imaginary. Now, the three remaining Cemetery Kids must navigate the game's forbidden landscape to rescue their friend ... and pray that the secret lurking at its center doesn't follow them home. Experience an exhilarating, terrifying adventure downloading from the cortexes of critically acclaimed writer Zac Thompson (Hunt for the Skinwalker, The Dregs) and blockbuster artist Daniel Irizarri (XINO, Judge Dredd)!"--
Subjects: Monster comics.; Horror comics.; Graphic novels.; Consciousness; Friendship; Good and evil; Monsters; Rescues; Sleep; Teenagers; Video games;

Everybody says it's everything : a novel / by Aliu, Xhenet,1978-author.;
"Growing up in Connecticut with their adoptive mother, Jackie, twins Drita and Petrit (aka Pete), had no connection to their Albanian heritage and knew nothing about where they came from. Their American lives were all about the Barbie doll that Drita wanted from the mall, and roller skating at the local rink. The twins were as close as could be. But in their teenage years, their paths diverged; Drita was a good girl with good grades and good manners who was going to go to a good college, Pete was a bad boy who had a baby with an addict and was going nowhere fast. Even their twinhood was not enough to keep them together. Fast forward to their twenties: Jackie has suffered a stroke, and Drita has abandoned her graduate study at Columbia University to move home and take care of her mother, giving up all her dreams for the future in the name of family obligation. She hasn't heard from Pete in three years. Then Pete's girlfriend Shanda and their son show up unexpectedly without him, and Drita discovers that he's fallen in with a guerrilla group of Albanian immigrants in the Bronx supplying the war in Kosovo with weapons and fighters. She becomes determined to bring him back into the family-but what she learns about their Albanian roots and Jackie's past threatens to tear them apart for good"--
Subjects: Domestic fiction.; Novels.; Adoptees; Families; Guerrilla warfare; Kosovo War, 1998-1999; Secrecy; Siblings; Twins;

The shadows / by North, Alex,1976-author.;
"The haunting new thriller from Alex North, author of the New York Times bestseller The Whisper Man. You knew a teenager like Charlie Crabtree. A dark imagination, a sinister smile--always on the outside of the group. Some part of you suspected he might be capable of doing something awful. Twenty-five years ago, Crabtree did just that, committing a murder so shocking that it's attracted that strange kind of infamy that only exists on the darkest corners of the internet--and inspired more than one copycat. Paul Adams remembers the case all too well: Crabtree--and his victim--were Paul's friends. Paul has slowly put his life back together. But now his mother, old and senile, has taken a turn for the worse. Though every inch of him resists, it is time to come home. It's not long before things start to go wrong. Reading the news, Paul learns another copycat has struck. His mother is distressed, insistent that there's something in the house. And someone is following him. Which reminds him of the most unsettling thing about that awful day twenty-five years ago. It wasn't just the murder. It was the fact that afterward, Charlie Crabtree was never seen again."--
Subjects: Thrillers (Fiction); Murder; Criminal investigation; Mothers and sons;

Two weeks : a novel / by Kingsbury, Karen,author.;
"From #1 New York Times bestselling author Karen Kingsbury comes a heart-wrenching and redemptive new story in the Baxter Family series about a couple desperately waiting to bring their adopted child home and a young mother about to make the biggest decision of her life. Cole Blake, son of Landon and Ashley Baxter Blake, is months away from going off to college and taking the first steps towards his dream--a career in medicine. But as he starts his final semester of high school he meets Elise, a mysterious new girl who captures his attention--and heart--from day one. Elise has her heart set on mending her wild ways and rediscovering the good girl she used to be. But not long after the semester starts, she discovers she's pregnant. Eighteen and alone, she shares her secret with Cole. Undaunted by the news, and in love for the first time in his life, Cole is determined to support Elise--even if it means skipping college, marrying her, and raising another man's baby. When Elise decides to place her baby up for adoption, she is matched with Aaron and Lucy Williams, who moved to Bloomington, Indiana to escape seven painful years of infertility. But as Elise's due date draws near, she becomes focused on one truth: she has two weeks to change her mind about the adoption. With Cole keeping vigil and Lucy and Aaron waiting to welcome their new baby, Elise makes an unexpected decision--one that changes everyone's plans. Tender and deeply moving, Two Weeks is a story about love, faith, and what it really means to be a family"--
Subjects: Religious fiction.; Domestic fiction.; Man-woman relationships; Pregnant teenagers; Adoption; Life change events; Infertility; Families;

Watch me disappear : a novel / by Brown, Janelle,author.;
"Billie is a beautiful Berkeley mom with a radical past--a teenage runaway from Northern California who took up with a group of environmental activists wanted by the FBI, lived dangerously, but when she meets Jonathan, a tech magazine editor and all around good guy, she settles easily into the life of an eco-conscious, stay-at-home suburban yoga mom. Their daughter Olive, under her mother's watchful gaze, becomes a lovely, introverted, slightly eccentric girl. As she reaches adolescence and needs Billie's full-time attention less, Billie throws herself into extreme sports--marathons, scuba diving, rock climbs, solo hikes. On one of these expeditions, Billie vanishes from the trail--only a hiking boot is found. The family is devastated--a year of intense mourning passes in which they await the closure that a body and a death certificate will bring. Jonathan drinks; Olive grows remote. But then she starts having waking dreams--hallucinations?--in which her very vibrant mother urges the girl to look for her, and Olive begins to believe her mother is still alive and in trouble. Jonathan believes the trauma and anxiety of losing her mother is making Olive ill, until he uncovers a secret that that compels him to consider that Billie may not be dead after all and sends him on his own quest for the truth--about Billie, their marriage, and the things people do in the name of love ..."--
Subjects: Thrillers (Fiction); Domestic fiction.; Mothers; Missing persons; Loss (Psychology); Secrets; Relationships; Families; Fathers and daughters;

The Air Raid Book Club : a novel / by Lyons, Annie,author.;
Includes bibliographical references."London, 1938: The bookstore just doesn't feel the same to Gertie Bingham ever since the death of her beloved husband Harry. Bingham Books was a dream they shared together, and without Harry, Gertie wonders if it's time to take her faithful old lab, Hemingway, and retire to the seaside. But fate has other plans for Gertie. In Germany, Hitler is on the rise, and Jewish families are making the heart-wrenching decision to send their children away from the growing turmoil. After a nudge from her dear friend Charles, Gertie decides to take in one of these refugees, a headstrong teenage girl named Hedy. Willful and fearless, Hedy reminds Gertie of herself at the same age, and shows her that she can't give up just yet. With the terrible threat of war on the horizon, the world needs people like Gertie Bingham and her bookshop. When the Blitz begins and bombs whistle overhead, Gertie and Hedy come up with the idea to start an air raid book club. Together with neighbors and bookstore customers, they hold lively discussions of everything from Winnie the Pooh to Wuthering Heights. After all, a good book can do wonders to bolster people's spirits, even in the most trying times. But even the best book can only provide a temporary escape, and as the tragic reality of the war hits home, the book club faces unimaginable losses. They will need all the strength of their stories and the bonds they've formed to see them through to brighter days"--
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Novels.; Book clubs (Discussion groups); Books and reading; Teenage refugees; World War, 1939-1945;

The busybody book club / by Sampson, Freya,author.;
"A dysfunctional book club must learn to pull together and solve a murder in this bighearted new mystery from the USA Today bestselling author of Nosy Neighbors. Having recently moved from London to a small Cornish seaside village, Nova Davies started a book club at the local community center, but so far it's a disaster. The five members disagree on everything, and to make matters worse, a significant sum of money is stolen during one of the meetings, putting the much-loved community center at risk. Suspicion for the theft falls on book club member Michael, especially when he disappears and a dead body turns up at his house. But the book club has their own theories. Agatha Christie superfan Phyllis is determined to prove Michael's been framed, while romance reader Arthur believes there's a mystery woman involved, and teenage sci-fi fan Ash thinks dark forces are at play. While trying to locate Michael, solve the murder and recover the stolen money, each of them has their own secrets to protect. But despite the danger closing in, they won't rest until they've cracked the case and gotten everyone safe at home with a book, where they belong"--
Subjects: Detective and mystery fiction.; Cozy mysteries.; Novels.; Book clubs (Discussion groups); Community centers; Murder; Secrecy; Theft;

The Air Raid Book Club [text (large print)] : a novel / by Lyons, Annie,author.;
Includes bibliographical references."London, 1938: The bookstore just doesn't feel the same to Gertie Bingham ever since the death of her beloved husband Harry. Bingham Books was a dream they shared together, and without Harry, Gertie wonders if it's time to take her faithful old lab, Hemingway, and retire to the seaside. But fate has other plans for Gertie. In Germany, Hitler is on the rise, and Jewish families are making the heart-wrenching decision to send their children away from the growing turmoil. After a nudge from her dear friend Charles, Gertie decides to take in one of these refugees, a headstrong teenage girl named Hedy. Willful and fearless, Hedy reminds Gertie of herself at the same age, and shows her that she can't give up just yet. With the terrible threat of war on the horizon, the world needs people like Gertie Bingham and her bookshop. When the Blitz begins and bombs whistle overhead, Gertie and Hedy come up with the idea to start an air raid book club. Together with neighbors and bookstore customers, they hold lively discussions of everything from Winnie the Pooh to Wuthering Heights. After all, a good book can do wonders to bolster people's spirits, even in the most trying times. But even the best book can only provide a temporary escape, and as the tragic reality of the war hits home, the book club faces unimaginable losses. They will need all the strength of their stories and the bonds they've formed to see them through to brighter days"--
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Large print books.; Novels.; Book clubs (Discussion groups); Books and reading; Teenage refugees; World War, 1939-1945;

Results 51 to 60 of 61 | « previous |