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Title details for Malice House by Megan Shepherd - Available

Malice House

by Megan Shepherd
Katie Schorr
Audiobook
4 of 4 copies available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
4 of 4 copies available
From New York Times bestselling author Megan Shepherd comes a complex tale of dark magic, family secrets, and monsters that don't stay on the page. "A propulsively charming nightmare, pooling like spilled ink across your imagination." — Kiersten White, New York Times bestselling author of Hide "Haunting and beautifully written . . . an exploration of the mysterious power of stories." —Megan Miranda, New York Times bestselling author of All the Missing Girls and The Last to Vanish "One step away from our world lies another: a land of violent fantasies, of sharp-toothed delights. . . ." Of all the things aspiring artist Haven Marbury expected to find while clearing out her late father's remote seaside house, Bedtime Stories for Monsters was not on the list. This secret handwritten manuscript is disturbingly different from his Pulitzer-winning works: its interweaving short stories crawl with horrific monsters and enigmatic humans that exist somewhere between this world and the next. The stories unsettle but also entice Haven, practically compelling her to illustrate them while she stays in the house that her father warned her was haunted. Clearly just dementia whispering in his ear . . . right? Reeling from a failed marriage, Haven hopes an illustrated Bedtime Stories can be the lucrative posthumous father-daughter collaboration she desperately needs to jump-start her art career. However, everyone in the nearby vacation town wants a piece of the manuscript: her father's obsessive literary salon members, the Ink Drinkers; her mysterious yet charming neighbor, who has a tendency toward three a.m. bonfires; a young barista with a literary forgery business; and of course, whoever keeps trying to break into her house. But when a monstrous creature appears under Haven's bed right as grisly deaths are reported in the nearby woods, she must race to uncover dark, otherworldly family secrets—completely rewriting everything she ever knew about herself in the process.

  • Creators

  • Series

    The Malice Compendium

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    October 4, 2022

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781368090568
      • File size: 373782 KB
      • Duration: 12:58:42

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Library Journal

      August 1, 2022

      DEBUT In her adult debut, Shepherd (Midnight Beauties) conjures up a twisted tale--made up of even more twisted tales--perfect for adults nostalgic for Scary Stories To Tell in the Dark. When Haven returns home to settle the estate of her late father, a Pulitzer Prize--winning author, she stumbles upon his unpublished manuscript Bedtime Stories for Monsters. Hoping to finally kick-start her career as an artist, Haven begins to illustrate the creatures from the secret manuscript and negotiate book deals. Then she witnesses things she can't explain: real-life manifestations of the imaginary creatures from her father's stories, which perfectly resemble her renditions. But who manifested them? Haven, her father, or something much darker? When bodies begin to pile up, and Haven and the manuscript are the only things that all the deaths have in common, she begins to question her father's dementia and her own sanity. VERDICT Readers will love the mystery, mayhem, and terrifying look at make-believe, and the monsters that are dreamed into existence in the process. Recommend to fans of Darcy Coates's The Haunting of Leigh Harker and EV Knight's Children of Demeter.--Alana Quarles

      Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • Booklist

      Starred review from August 1, 2022
      Haven Marbury has lived under the shadow of her father's literary genius for her whole life. A struggling artist herself, Haven arrives at Malice House, her father's estate, to clean it out after his death. While looking for alcohol in the attic, she finds an unpublished manuscript called ""Bedtime Stories for Monsters."" Haven, broke, hopes to sell Bedtime Stories to a publisher, complete with her own illustrations. The local bookstore owner and librarian want to help her but mostly just want to get their hands on the unpublished manuscript. When Haven hears mysterious noises in the house, she begins to think her father was not suffering from Alzheimer's but that there is something deeply sinister happening in and around the estate. This feeling intensifies when savage killings happen throughout the small town. All is not what it seems at Malice House, and Shepherd uses the conventions of a gothic haunted-house tale to keep readers on the edge of their seats. In her adult debut, bestselling young adult author Shepherd has written an intensely spooky and scary tale about the power of stories and the art of creation. Highly recommended.

      COPYRIGHT(2022) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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