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In 1983, a trio of college students decides to make a film about roadside memorials—those clusters of flowers or crosses that mark the spot where someone lost their life. It’s supposed to be an adventure: a road trip that’s equal parts documentary-making and fun. But, as they inch farther into the deep rural areas of the Appalachians, their trip takes on a dark, frightening overtone. Soon they begin to feel like they’re being followed—but is this a product of their imagination, or are they actually being shadowed? Could the roadside memorials they’ve been finding here have an explanation that’s far more sinister than automobile accidents? Chizmar follows up 2023’s Becoming the Boogeyman with a novel that is at least as unsettling; there’s a palpable sense of dread here, the kind of creeping terror that burrows its way under your skin and makes you shiver and twitch. The author, who’s been nominated for the Bram Stoker Award a handful of times as an anthology editor, could easily snag a nomination for this absolutely terrifying novel.

Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Three emotionally fragile college students head into the Appalachian wilderness to film a class project about roadside memorials. Despite some fairly purposefulBlair Witch Projectvibes and an atmosphere positively seething with menace, this slice of hillbilly horror has trouble sticking the landing. It’s a good premise, bordering on cliche: three students at Pennsylvania’s York College are teamed up in May 1983 by their eclectic American Studies professor Marcus Tyree to explore a topic of their choice related to American society. Our narrator is Billy Anderson, 19, an orphan traumatized by the death of his parents in a tragic accident, leaving him to be raised by his doting Aunt Helen. Troy Carpenter is curious but anxious, rattled by the death of his little brother in a drive-by shooting. Melody Wise is the oldest of the trio at 23, but is still reeling from the death of her mother. Their collective project is “Roadside Memorials: A Study of Grief and Remembrance,” a documentary for which the students plan to investigate these memorials and interview survivors, starting with Billy’s parents and their memorial in Sudbury, Pennsylvania. Other than an abundance of accidents, their subjects seem ordinary but the omens and totems that start appearing are anything but. Among these are an ominous hitchhiker, a flat tire, a dead animal, and a common symbol appearing on each memorial—all escalating events that lead to bloody and unexpected consequences. At first, the setup seems a littleScooby-Doo, replete with small-town secrets, concealed identities, and the odd unmasking. Our three leads are very likeable, but their bickering can lean towards the soap-operatic. Thankfully, Chizmar, a veteran at writing pedestrian horror in the vein of his occasional co-author Stephen King, gives the story enough of a whiff of the otherworldly, complete with an evil cult, to keep readers on edge before some late-stage twists strain the book’s hard-won authenticity. A pulpy, peek-between-your-fingers look at small-town America, powered by real grief. Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Publishers Weekly
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Bestseller Chizmar (Gwendy’s Button Box, with Stephen King) wows in an immersive and über-creepy novel that pays subtle homage to horror classics ranging from the works of H.P. Lovecraft to The Blair Witch Project. In 1983, three students in an American Studies class at Pennsylvania’s York College—Billy Anderson, Troy Carpenter, and Melody Wise—plan to make a documentary about roadside memorials in Pennsylvania’s Appalachian region, an area where, as their professor warns, “if you look hard enough... you’ll find the impossible.” Chizmar gradually ratchets up a palpable feeling of unease through an accumulation of small unsettling moments. The classmates’ vehicle passes a biker who’s smiling through a face masked by blood. Troy begins to worry that someone is spying on them, a paranoia that’s heightened when video shot by Billy reveals a stranger lurking in the shadows. The discovery that a cryptic symbol has been drawn on several of the memorials to accident victims increases the group’s worries that they’ve stumbled into something dangerous—fears that prove all too justified. Chizmar pulls no punches on the way to a thoroughly satisfying finale, creating a literate horror novel that will remind some of T.E.D. Klein’s The Ceremonies. It’s a tour de force. (Oct.)