It happened just yesterday or perhaps the day before. The bombs were dropped. No one knew why. Maybe a political study was taken into careful consideration. Perhaps a research grant had been involved. A new plan to invigorate the stock market. Whatever the reason, due diligence was undoubtedly done and all aspects were carefully considered. Certainly the motion was passed around the senate a time or two. After all, an election was coming. And then they went ahead and did it. Every vestige of civilization was blown away, save for a few stubborn traces barnacled along the grim fringes of existence. Like say, maybe the Maritimes...
Papa says everyone has a story that deserves to be told. Most begin years ago, after the second bomb hit, unearthing a deadly contagion that divided the population into the pure, the infected, and the Ragers. Many recount the moment we rose up from the ashes and started anew. Others tell of the day we built a wall to keep them out. For some, they're nothing more than the vestiges left behind-a simple name carved into the knotty bark of a Juniper tree. My story begins with a boy. A mute, from the other side of the wall, known only as Six, who touched my heart in ways that words never could, and gave me the courage to face my darkest truth. Juniper Unraveling is a full-length standalone romance set in a post-apocalyptic world.
I guess I always felt even if the world came to an end, McDonald's still would be open. High school sophomore Miranda's disbelief turns to fear in a split second when an asteroid knocks the moon closer to Earth, like "one marble hits another." The result is catastrophic. How can her family prepare for the future when worldwide tsunamis are wiping out the coasts, earthquakes are rocking the continents, and volcanic ash is blocking out the sun? As August turns dark and wintery in northeastern Pennsylvania, Miranda, her two brothers, and their mother retreat to the unexpected safe haven of their sunroom, where they subsist on stockpiled food and limited water in the warmth of a wood-burning stove. Told in a year's worth of journal entries, this heart-pounding story chronicles Miranda's struggle to hold on to the most important resource of all--hope--in an increasingly desperate and unfamiliar world. An extraordinary series debut Susan Beth Pfeffer has written several companion novels to Life As We Knew It, including The Dead and the Gone, This World We Live In, and The Shade of the Moon.
So what happens when Bigfoot, the Trickster Coyote, the ghost of Sam Steele and the long-lost spirit of The Prophet, brother to the mighty Tecumseh and reincarnated in the form of a giant pink flying Winnebago go toe-to-toe with dark supernatural forces in a cross-Canada battle ranging from Cape Breton to Labrador to Thunder Bay? I'm not saying that it is going to be pretty...
In this thought-provoking and lyrical debut novel, a young woman's only hope for survival in the dystopian future is a ship, a Noah's Ark, that can rescue 500 people. London burned for three weeks. And then it got worse. . . Young, naive, and frustratingly sheltered, Lalla has grown up in near-isolation in her parents' apartment, sheltered from the chaos of their collapsed civilization. But things are getting more dangerous outside. People are killing each other for husks of bread, and the police are detaining anyone without an identification card. On her sixteenth birthday, Lalla's father decides it's time to use their escape route -- a ship he's built that is only big enough to save five hundred people. But the utopia her father has created isn't everything it appears. There's more food than anyone can eat, but nothing grows; more clothes than anyone can wear, but no way to mend them; and no-one can tell her where they are going.
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY People ∙ O: The Oprah Magazine ∙ Financial Times ∙ Kansas City Star ∙ BookPage ∙ Kirkus Reviews ∙ Publishers Weekly ∙ Booklist NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “A stunner.”—Justin Cronin “It’s never the disasters you see coming that finally come to pass—it’s the ones you don’t expect at all,” says Julia, in this spellbinding novel of catastrophe and survival by a superb new writer. Luminous, suspenseful, unforgettable, The Age of Miracles tells the haunting and beautiful story of Julia and her family as they struggle to live in a time of extraordinary change. On an ordinary Saturday in a California suburb, Julia awakes to discover that something has happened to the rotation of the earth. The days and nights are growing longer and longer; gravity is affected; the birds, the tides, human behavior, and cosmic rhythms are thrown into disarray. In a world that seems filled with danger and loss, Julia also must face surprising developments in herself, and in her personal world—divisions widening between her parents, strange behavior by her friends, the pain and vulnerability of first love, a growing sense of isolation, and a surprising, rebellious new strength. With crystalline prose and the indelible magic of a born storyteller, Karen Thompson Walker gives us a breathtaking portrait of people finding ways to go on in an ever-evolving world. “Gripping drama . . . flawlessly written; it could be the most assured debut by an American writer since Jennifer Egan’s Emerald City.”—The Denver Post “Pure magnificence.”—Nathan Englander “Provides solace with its wisdom, compassion, and elegance.”—Curtis Sittenfeld “Riveting, heartbreaking, profoundly moving.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review) Look for special features inside. Join the Circle for author chats and more.
Half-Gypsy, Carnival carries his dead Poppa inside him as a perpetual adviser as he works as fortune-teller and occult troubleshooter, banishing demons and succubi with a carefree confidence born only of youth. His life journey takes a distinctly different turn when he meets Maya, an alluring female vampire. This novel details a dark version of the modern world, in which demons appear unbidden and where having a talent and using it successfully can mean either life or death. GYPSY BLOOD is a fast-paced, dark, funny and terrifying novel - like nothing that you have ever read before. The whole thing rolls like an avalanche of skateboards building to a climactic battle royal e between Carnival, a two-timing lady vampire, a she-demon with a mother complex, a social-climbing blood god, the collective spirit of the city and a mercenary mariachi band in a rickshaw. This is a fantasy for those folks who HATE fantasy! "If you have got a taste for over-the-top stories in the campy mode of the EVIL DEAD movies, then this is definitely a book that you should look into." - The Goreletter "If Harlan Ellison, Richard Matheson and Robert Bloch had a three-way sex romp in a hot tub and then a team of scientists came in and filtered out the water and mixed the leftover DNA into a test tube, the resulting genetic experiment would most likely grow up into Steve Vernon." - BOOKGASM "Gypsy Blood is for fans of dark fantasy who think they've seen it all. Where else are you going to find a novel that opens with life and death battle with a succubus, rolls into a vampire's palm reading session, which segues into a bathtub summoning ceremony and climaxes with a non-stop showdown between a blood demon, a city incarnate, and a mercenary band of mariachi armed with a homemade propane-powered kamikaze rickshaw and assorted armaments?" - Hellnotes "True originality is rare but you will find it every time that Steve Vernon puts his fingers on the keyboard." - Jeff Strand (author of PRESSURE)
If you’ve ever had your heart broken - then this book is for you. If you enjoy the taste of strong meat – then this book is for you. If you’ve got a sense of weird that is honed as sharp as a cutthroat’s knife – then this book is for you. Here are six of the strangest love stories you have ever read. WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT STEVE VERNON: "If Harlan Ellison, Richard Matheson and Robert Bloch had a three-way sex romp in a hot tub, and then a team of scientists came in and filtered out the water and mixed the leftover DNA into a test tube, the resulting genetic experiment would most likely grow up into Steve Vernon." - Bookgasm "Steve Vernon is something of an anomaly in the world of horror literature. He's one of the freshest new voices in the genre although his career has spanned twenty years. Writing with a rare swagger and confidence, Steve Vernon can lead his readers through an entire gamut of emotions from outright fear and repulsion to pity and laughter." - Cemetery Dance "Armed with a bizarre sense of humor, a huge amount of originality, a flair for taking risks and a strong grasp of characterization - Steve's got the chops for sure." - Dark Discoveries "Steve Vernon was born to write. He's the real deal and we're lucky to have him." - Richard Chizmar My Mom thinks I'm pretty cool, too.
A father and his son. 2500 miles apart. A blue ribbon crosses the sky. The world starts to unravel. No one knows what is happening, but everyone is trying to find out. Buck is running his big rig from the west coast. Garth is trapped in New York City with his high school friend. With Marine training and an eighteen-wheeler, Buck heads east. With no training and no communication with his father, Garth fights just to escape New York City. The Hadron collider in CERN. Its twin south of Denver. The Australian outback. What do these places have in common? Those who might be able to fix things are trying to figure it out while Buck doesn't care. He is on a mission to find his son. Is time the enemy of humanity? Join us today in this fight for survival in an exciting new Post-Apocalyptic series.
Detours are amazing creatures. A detour can shortcut your existence or it can lead you down a forever long road that will linger far into the distant reaches of eternity. It is these unexpected tangents that people stumble across nearly every day that will haunt you in a frighteningly familiar fashion. Wander into a laundromat and find a kind of a time machine. Indulge yourself in a particularly nasty game of baseball. Hitch a ride on a freight train with the piggyback man or entomb yourself in a trailer walled with books or take a ride on a bus that is going nowhere fast or just lean over an empty ocean and wait for the very first mermaid you see. Detour around an overturned trailer of chickens and find a chance to do it all over again. Take a taxi ride with a very hungry passenger or just walk in the park and watch a juggler balancing severed heads. Reality will take you only so far and after that there is nothing to rely on but faith and fear. I offer you eighteen eerie tales of fantasy, horror, science fiction and all around strangeness that will take you to the edge of the map and then nudge you just a little bit further. "If Harlan Ellison, Richard Matheson and Robert Bloch had a three-way sex romp in a hot tub, and then a team of scientists came in and filtered out the water and mixed the leftover DNA into a test tube, the resulting genetic experiment would most likely grow up into Steve Vernon." – Bookgasm
