By Freddie Kölsch (author)
"This punch-packing Halloween horror story plays out to a soundtrack of nineties grunge."
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Scarecrow superstitions in a sleepy small town escalate to terrifying heights in Freddie Kölsch’s Empty Heaven - a unique YA horror mystery novel that explores forging identities and finding your queer tribe while revealing that monsters don’t always come in typically monstrous forms, and all this to the raw, gritty tune of grunge music.
While Darian has always loved spending summers with her best friends in Kesuquosh, a quaint New England village of folksy superstitions where she gets to escape being haunted by past traumas, all that changes when she heads here for Halloween and finds Kesuquosh in the throes of scarecrow fever. When her crush is picked to play a big part in a strange local harvest ritual, Darian and her friends are forced to follow a bunch of baffling clues in order to save her crush and the other townsfolk from the creepy Good Arcturus scarecrow deity.
Chilling, thrilling and funny, Empty Heaven ripples with cathartic energy as it showcases the nourishing power of found families.
You are safe, my child. You are loved, my child. You are surrounded by the good earth.
Read the full description
Darian Sabine Arden loves her family's summer home in the picturesque Massachusetts village of Kesuquosh. It's where her three best friends live, and it's the only place in her life where she isn't haunted by reminders of the worst thing that ever happened to her. The villager's belief in a godlike, benevolent scarecrow who protects the town only adds to the charming local colour.
But when Darian's magnetic, mercurial crush KJ is chosen during a bizarre ritual on Halloween, Darian is forced to admit that Good Arcturus is more than just a quaint, folksy superstition - he's terrifyingly real.
Something ancient and sinister lurks behind the autumnal fields and warmly glowing windows of Kesuquosh. Something that doesn't take kindly to its paradise being threatened by a group of scrappy, weird teenagers. To save KJ - and themselves - Darian and her friends will have to follow a tangled trail of clues and question everything they thought they knew about their home. And Darian will have to finally face up to her own ghosts…
Empty Heaven is a YA-crossover horror novel about queer found family, redemptive romance, overcoming trauma, and the dark sides of beautiful places. Full of cinematic prose, and late-90s grunge music, it asks: who pays the price for perfection? And what if the real monsters don't always look like monsters?
"This sensational YA debut blends tense, terrifying horror with dark humour, queer romance and hugely original storytelling." The Guardian on Now, Conjurers
Freddie Kölsch is a connoisseur and crafter of frightful fiction (with a dash of hope) for teens and former teens.
She lives in Salem, New England with her high school sweetheart-turned-wife, a handful of cats, a houseful of art, and a mind's eye full of ghosts.
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You are safe, my child. You are loved, my child.
The LoveReading4Kids Editorial Team have read and reviewed Empty Heaven and determined it is suitable for children aged 15-18 years old
Empty Heaven features in the following genres: Featured Books for Young Adults, Horror & Ghost Stories, Children’s / Teenage fiction: Mythic fantasy / Mythic fiction, Children’s / Teenage fiction: Dark fantasy, Children’s / Teenage fiction: Friendship stories, Children’s / Teenage fiction: Romance and love stories, Recommendations, Children's and Young Adult Fiction, Children’s, Teenage and Educational, Fantasy / Magical, Romance / Relationship Stories
Paperback. £8.99, down from the £9.99 cover price. In Stock.
Empty Heaven was written by Freddie Kölsch and published by Electric Monkey an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers
Empty Heaven has 479 pages
£8.99, reduced from £9.99. In Stock.
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