First published 2017
Jeremy works the counter at Video Hut in Nevada, Iowa, during the late 1990s. The job keeps him busy and gets him away from home, where he and his father still struggle with his mother's death six years earlier. When regular customer Stephanie Parsons returns her copy of Targets, she complains that something strange appears on the tape. Days later, another customer brings back She's All That with a similar problem. Jeremy investigates and discovers mysterious black and white footage spliced into both movies. The scenes show someone breathing in what looks like a local barn. The footage disturbs Jeremy deeply, but he watches it repeatedly. Store owner Sarah Jane becomes obsessed once she sees the clips. More customers return tapes with similar insertions. The quiet Iowa countryside that Jeremy knows transforms into something threatening. The familiar fields and farmhouses now seem dangerous. What began as an odd customer complaint pulls Jeremy into something much darker than he anticipated.
Genres: suspense, mystery, contemporary, thriller
Vibes: atmospheric, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: mystery, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Nevada, Iowa
Period: 1990s
214 pages · Hardcover · Farrar, Straus and Giroux