Book Review: Disappearance at Devil's Rock by Paul Tremblay

Disappearance at Devil's Rock tells the story about a family's ordeal following the mysterious disappearance of thirteen-year-old, Tommy Sanderson. Creepy occurrences follow as his mother, Elizabeth, and his sister, Kate, try to unravel exactly what happened out at Devil's Rock...

"But Tommy isn't a ghost. He can't be, because right now Tommy is the opposite of a ghost. He is nowhere."


After seeing Paul Tremblay all over bookstagram with rave reviews, I have been eagerly waiting for one of his books to come out of my TBR jar...and finally, it happened! And this book did not disappoint. Initially, it took me a while to get properly into the book due to the slow-building at the beginning, but then all of a sudden, I was HOOKED.

Tremblay's writing is so effortless, it's easy to breeze through 80 pages or so without even noticing time has gone by. His characters are well-written and most importantly of all, believable. Like my good friend Sadie has pointed out, he is very good at writing teenagers, who are often misrepresented and inaccurately portrayed in fiction. Reading their conversations and interactions with each other is almost like listening in on conversations behind the bike sheds near school. It just works! I believe it.

As for the story itself, it has some wonderfully eerie parts. To me, nothing is more petrifying than the thought of someone staring in your bedroom window while you sleep... even the thought just makes the hairs on my body stand on end. The story was totally unpredictable, I really didn't see it going down the route that it did - and that's exactly what I want from my books. To be surprised! To turn each page wondering what the hell is going on, what will happen next. This book also really brings home how gut-wrenching and heartbreaking it must be for those who have to suffer through the disappearance of their children (or their siblings), the not knowing where they are, what happened to them, are they okay? Will they ever come home? As for the ending, I really was left guessing until the final 30 pages or so. 

Stephen King has hailed Tremblay as one of his favourite "new" horror authors and I can see why. I'm looking forward to reading more from him! 

Johann
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Comments

  1. Sadie Hartmann10 January 2017 at 14:32

    Yes, gut-wrenching. A good way to put how I felt at the end. I actually cried. This one got me.

    ReplyDelete

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