by Peter Straub
First published 2010
One man sits down to write about the night that destroyed his wife and friends decades ago. In the 1960s, the charismatic Spenser Mallon held court on a college campus, gathering devoted young followers who hung on his every word. Mallon demanded more than worship from his acolytes. He required sexual favors and absolute loyalty. When he invited his most faithful disciples to join him for a secret ceremony in a nearby meadow, they followed without question. The ritual left one person dead, their body torn apart, and the survivors psychologically shattered. Now, years later, the narrator tries to make sense of what happened by telling the story. As he writes, the other members of that doomed group must confront what they witnessed. Each carries scars from that terrible night. The evil Mallon unleashed continues to stalk them, forcing a reckoning with the darkness they cannot escape.
Genres: literary-fiction, mystery, horror, psychological-thriller, dark-fantasy
Vibes: dark, emotional, intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: unreliable-narrator
Setting: College Campus
Period: 1960s
397 pages · Hardcover · Doubleday
Content warnings: abuse, death, gore, graphic-violence, mental-illness