Published by Bell Bridge Books

Synopsis: 

Four life-long friends wake in the woods overlooking the highway, without any memory of how they got there.

One has a triangle burned into his forearm.
One has lost her pants.
One is missing his glass eye.
The last is covered in blood.

As images of big, black eyes and the cries of sheep haunt their addled brains, the town fire alarm and police sirens can be heard in the distance.

What is happening to them? What is happening to their pristine town?
What’s more, why can’t they remember any of it?
What . . . what did they do? 

I first discovered this author last year when I read a copy of Little Killers A-Z , the instant appeal for me was that the author wasn’t afraid to be weird. He makes his characters do all manner of terrible things, which is very interesting to read!

This book was also unusual, but that didn’t stop me devouring it in a single sitting. The main characters are a group of four 17 year olds who have woken up with no memories of the night before, over the course of the book they start to figure out what terrible things they were involved in.

The facts and helpful flashbacks don’t start coming until about two thirds of the way through the book so there’s plenty of time for the tension to build, which is one of Odentz’ greatest talents! In this case, the narrative bounced around a lot so I was feeling a bit confused as to what the hell was going on but it still managed to hold my attention until the end.

This isn’t just a straightforward horror story though – the author goes a bit deeper than that and makes the town as much of a character as the people. It’s a well-off suburb where the teens can essentially do no wrong, it’s home to the people who have officially ‘made it’, yet they’re all still as messed up as the rest of us.

My only issue about this book is the revelation about one of the characters near the end of the book (no spoilers here), I could see what the author was trying to do but it was a bit too divisive for my tastes. If you want to guess what the issue was, read my review of Bubblegum by Sari Taurez!

This author has a real knack for the weird and the wonderful, I’ll be back for more as he writes.