Disappearance at Devil’s Rock by Paul Tremblay
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
**4.5-stars rounded up**
As a Reader, I focus a lot on new releases. In the majority of cases, if I don’t get to a book either before, or within like 4 or 5-months, of its release date, it’s going to end up languishing on my shelves, or Kindle, unread for years.
A month ago, I was browsing books that were past nominees for the Bram Stoker Awards, and this just happened to be one of them. I decided it was high time I get to it. I’ve owned this book since it’s release and am kicking myself for not picking it up sooner.
This story features a sort of classic set-up: three teen boys enter the forest, only two return. We follow the missing boy, Tommy’s, mom, Elizabeth, and his younger sister, Kate. We also get the perspective of the boys in the days leading up to Tommy’s disappearance.
There are a lot of moving parts to the narrative, but they’re all blended together so well that it makes for a seamless, emotional and engaging story.
I am huge Tremblay fan, so I wouldn’t say I was necessarily surprised at how much I enjoyed this, or how good the writing was, however, I do walk away feeling this is one of Tremblay’s best works to date. I can’t stress enough how incredibly well-told it is; completely immersive. I was drawn in quickly and couldn’t stop.
The inclusion of the boys perspectives, since they are just teens, had a certain Coming of Age feel that enjoy. That combined with various real world horrors, really played into my tastes. I thought the audiobook narration was perfect for the tone of the story as well. Overall, just exceptional.
At the end of the day, Disappearance at Devil’s Rock was a great reminder for me to not neglect my backlist. There are so many incredible stories lurking on the shelves just waiting to be discovered.
I would absolutely recommend this to people who enjoy genre-bending, emotionally-impactful stories, full of haunting imagery and real world horrors. I’m so glad that I finally made time for this one!