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You are safe, my child. You are loved, my child. You are one with the good earth.
Darian Sabine Arden is haunted by a monster who claims to love her.
Her only respite is the New England village where she spends summers with her three best friends. Kesuquosh is serene and idyllic, and the townsfolk's odd worship of a godlike scarecrow only adds to the charming local color. But when Darian pays a surprise Halloween visit to her summer crush—a beautiful, unreadable girl named KJ—just in time to see her swept up in a bizarre harvest ritual, she's forced to admit that Good Arcturus is more than a quaint superstition. He's terrifyingly real.
Something ancient and sinister lurks behind the dying sunflower fields and glowing windows of Kesuquosh… and in the hearts of the people who live there. Something that doesn't take kindly to its paradise being threatened. To save KJ—and themselves—Darian and her friends must question everything they thought they knew about their home. And Darian will have to tell the awful truth about the monster that's been with her all along.
Empty Heaven is a propulsive and original love story, a darkly funny tribute to the power of queer found family, and a haunting exploration of the hidden horrors of beautiful places.
"Utilizing a likable cast and witty banter anchored by a sincere romance, Kölsch delivers on both chills and catharsis in this occult horror thriller about the power of human connection." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Set in the early 2000s with plentiful period detail, the story balances both real world and supernatural horrors with funny, tender, lighthearted moments among the close-knit friends." ―Booklist
This information about Empty Heaven was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Freddie Kölsch is a connoisseur and crafter of frightful fiction (with a dash of hope) for teens and former teens. She is the author of Now, Conjurers. She lives in Salem, Massachusetts, with her high school sweetheart-turned-wife, a handful of cats, a houseful of art, and a mind's eye full of ghosts.
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