September 1, 2023
In the Bram Stoker Award--winning Kiste's latest, only three girls survive The Haunting of Velkwood--the night everyone else in their suburban hometown becomes ghosts--and their struggles have just begun. Prepub Alert.
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Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
December 1, 2023
Shared secrets, guilt, and regret haunt protagonists and readers alike in Kiste's breathtakingly original modern ghost story laden with humanity and heartache. Twenty years ago, Talitha Velkwood was living with her mother and younger sister on the street named after her family when they, and everyone else in their suburban neighborhood, save her two best friends, turned into ghosts. Today Talitha is behind on rent, with additional bills piling up, and is unable to free herself now from the memory of the sister she couldn't free then. When she is contacted by yet another researcher interested in studying the Velkwood Vicinity, which has sat impenetrable for years, she agrees to return. The unease is immediate and chilling as Talitha explores her former home, begging the question of who the real ghost is. The weight of Talitha's unanswered questions is compounded by a reunion with her childhood friend Brett, a fellow Velkwood survivor whose presence brings additional guilt. Readers will be captivated as Talitha and Brett face the past they abandoned and search for answers they're not certain they want. VERDICT Fans of My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix won't want to miss Kiste's (The Rust Maidens) latest.--Emily Vinci
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Starred review from December 1, 2023
Kiste (Reluctant Immortals, 2022) presents what is sure to be one of the most original and riveting horror novels of 2024. Twenty years ago a single block, deep in the suburbs, slipped into its own dimension, locked behind an inaccessible veil. Everyone was lost save for three girls who had returned to college the night before. Talitha, now 40, has never recovered from the trauma of that day, but when a researcher entices her back to try to make contact with her little sister, Talitha stops running from Brett, Grace, and their shared past in order to finally move forward and allow the ghosts to rest. The Haunting of Velkwood is both an atmospheric, character-centered story that lays bare the horror of suburban malaise, exposing its dark underbelly encrusted with monsters both real and supernatural, and an ode to the forgotten women who are powerful enough to save themselves and even the world, especially if they band together and let love pull them through. This is reminiscent of Kiste's award-winning, heartbreakingly beautiful debut, Rust Maidens (2018), and fans of titles as wide ranging as Sarah Langan's Good Neighbors (2021), Daniel Kraus' The Ghost That Ate Us (2022), and Lucy Snyder's Sister, Maiden, Monster (2023) will love getting trapped in the Velkwood Vicinity.
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January 8, 2024
The propulsive if underbaked latest from Bram Stoker Award winner Kiste (Reluctant Immortals) aims to shed light on the terrors lurking beneath everyday suburbia but falls short of the mark. Middle-aged Talitha Velkwood was, in the 1980s, one of three friends to escape their small neighborhood—now known as “The Velkwood Vicinity”—before, in “a cosmic anomaly,” it inexplicably “went from a nothing neighborhood to a literal nothing... it wavers in between, there and not there, like some kind of ghoulish Brigadoon.” Now paranormal researcher Jack convinces Talitha to go back, sure that only she is capable of crossing the border. What she finds there is a street full of ghosts ready to bring her back to the traumas of her youth. Kiste delivers some truly uncanny imagery in this strange suburban wasteland, but the eerie atmospherics often fail to take on larger meaning. One of the Velkwood neighbors, for example, is always shown conversing with a frog in varying states of decomposition, but, beyond its weirdness, the significance of this remains opaque. The plot is fast-paced but somewhat predictable, and the scares never pack a true punch. This is best suited for Kiste’s die-hard fans.
March 1, 2024
In an oppressive 1980s U.S. suburb, forgotten women locate their power and rescue themselves. Talitha Velkwood, a stagnant middle-aged woman, is plagued by the tragic and mysterious disappearance of the suburban neighborhood where she grew up 20 years ago. This cosmic anomaly, in which everything and everyone on this single block vanished behind a seemingly uncrossable veil, left behind only three college girls--Talitha, Brett Hadley, and Grace Spencer. In a world obsessed with spectacle, it's no surprise that the mysterious circumstances of the Velkwood Vicinity caught the attention of occult theorists, some ill-intentioned tabloid journalists, and now a sympathetic paranormal researcher named Jack. He theorizes that only the three women are capable of crossing the border, and when both Brett and Grace reject his offer to try it, he approaches Talitha, convincing her to go back for her younger sister. What she finds is a street full of ghosts ready to plunge her back into the traumatic past she tried desperately to run from. Somewhere between real life and the supernatural, Talitha must confront the reality that past and present are always intertwined, no matter how hard you work to erase it. After all her years of running, Talitha turns back for another moment with her sister and a reconnection with her estranged friends to repair the Velkwood Vicinity and heal themselves. While the haunting is original and atmospheric, the dark history of Talitha's suburbia has a predictable underbelly, leaving the scares a bit hollow and the emotional peak at a disappointingly low elevation. On the other hand, a character-driven novel that employs a metaphor for the time warp of trauma and women refusing to stay silent about abuses they've undergone is a worthwhile undertaking. Kiste fights for friendship and love to pull her characters through.
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