The Unspoken - Hardcover

Fahy, Thomas

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1416940073 ISBN 13: 9781416940074

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2008

Synopsis

"In five years' time, your greatest fear will consume you. It will rob you of your last breath."

Five years ago six children who lived with their families in Jacob Crawley's Divine Path religious cult escaped by burning the compound to the ground. They are reunited at the funeral of Jacob's son, Harold. Harold died of drowning -- his worst fear -- even though his body was found miles from any water. And it seems that each of the teens is marked for murder -- as Crawley had predicted years earlier. Can any of these teens save themselves?

Horror author Thomas Fahy now brings his unsettling talent to teen fiction with The Unspoken.

About this title

About the Author:

Thomas Fahy is the author of two horror novels for teens, Sleepless and The Unspoken, and Night Visions, a novel for adults, for which Booklist lauded his "ability to develop characters" and "his substantial descriptive skill." Sleepless is his second young adult novel. He teaches literature at Long Island University (C.W. Post campus) and is editor of the forthcoming book, The Philosophy of Horror. He lives in New York City.

Review:

Teeth-clenchingly suspenseful at times and deliciously creepy at others, Fahy (Night Visions) delivers a classic horror story with his YA debut, about a religious cult destroyed by a fire and the six teens who escape. He pulls out all the necessary stops as he constructs the terrifying story of what comes to pass five years later as the surviving teens are being murdered one by one, according to the cult leader's prophecy. The author gives readers gory visual descriptions of the crime scenes, tension-building cliffhangers and the type of unexpected surprises that if translated to film would make moviegoers scream, and he nails each device beautifully. An element of genre-specific camp attaches to some of the scenes; for example, the main character, Allison, has epileptic seizures during which she envisions each murder before it happens; and in a pivotal sequence, Allison assumes the killer is dead, but readers know otherwise. Executed with panache, these familiar elements only add to the overall thrill. A page-turner that just might keep readers up at night--especially given the loosely resolved ending. Ages 12-up. (Feb.) -- From Publishers Weekly (February 11, 2008)

About this edition

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 1416940073
• ISBN 13: 9781416940074
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 176