Black River Orchard (Hardcover)
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Description
A small town is transformed by dark magic when seven strange trees begin bearing magical apples in this new masterpiece of horror from the bestselling author of Wanderers and The Book of Accidents.
It’s autumn in the town of Harrow, but something besides the season is changing there.
Because in that town there is an orchard, and in that orchard, seven most unusual trees. And from those trees grows a new sort of apple: strange, beautiful, with skin so red it’s nearly black.
Take a bite of one of these apples, and you will desire only to devour another. And another. You will become stronger. More vital. More yourself, you will believe. But then your appetite for the apples and their peculiar gifts will keep growing—and become darker.
This is what happens when the townsfolk discover the secret of the orchard. Soon it seems that everyone is consumed by an obsession with the magic of the apples . . . and what’s the harm, if it is making them all happier, more confident, more powerful?
Even if something else is buried in the orchard besides the seeds of these extraordinary trees: a bloody history whose roots reach back to the very origins of the town.
But now the leaves are falling. The days grow darker. It’s harvest time, and the town will soon reap what it has sown.
About the Author
Chuck Wendig is the New York Times bestselling author of Wanderers, The Book of Accidents, Wayward, and more than two dozen other books for adults and young adults. A finalist for the Astounding Award and an alumnus of the Sundance Screenwriters Lab, he has also written for comics, games, film, and television. He’s known for his popular blog, terribleminds, and books about writing such as Damn Fine Story. He lives in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, with his family.
Praise For…
“Myth and magic, history and folklore, trauma and temptation, it’s all tangled together here and watered deeply with blood. Wendig has pulled off a fresh and unexpected horror feat, expertly drawing from the ancient, endless wells of our greatest fears.”—Premee Mohamed, Nebula Award–winning author of Beneath the Rising
“A gripping story of love and legacies gone rotten, deeply rooted in the landscape and as twisty and gnarled as an ancient apple tree . . . Be careful what you wish for: I devoured it down to the core.”—T. Kingfisher, USA Today bestselling author of What Moves the Dead
“Chuck Wendig is one of my very favorite storytellers. His stories are so rich and vivid and layered they seem to live and breathe—they have teeth and they might bite. Black River Orchard is a deep, dark, luscious tale that creeps up on you and doesn’t let go. Sharp and crisp and juicy like the most obvious of fruit metaphors, this is folklore for the modern age, visceral and familiar in ways that make it all the more terrifying.”—Erin Morgenstern, New York Times bestselling author of The Starless Sea
“An epic saga that is at once propulsive horror novel and parable, thriller and cautionary tale, Black River Orchard is the immensely talented Chuck Wendig at his finest. Like the dark, red apples at the heart of this beautifully told, character rich, and utterly engrossing story, you’ll take one bite and won’t be able to stop yourself from devouring the rest.”—Lisa Unger, New York Times bestselling author of Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six
“The horror of Black River Orchard is the existence of an insidious, dormant catalyst for evil that exists inside of us. All that has to happen is for humankind to discover that one thing that will universally divide us all. Wendig’s wheelhouse is knowing exactly how to pluck heartstrings and prey on fears at the same time; high-stakes horror meets peak emotional investment means Total. Reader. Devastation.”—Sadie Hartmann, author of 101 Horror Books to Read Before You’re Murdered
“I'm in awe of Chuck Wendig, a gifted storyteller with a seemingly boundless imagination. His new book Black River Orchard should come with a warning label: You’ll never bite into another apple without remembering this dark, demented, and genuinely frightening novel.”—Jason Rekulak, author of Hidden Pictures
“Wendig’s ensemble cast and rich atmosphere of collective decay bring to life a book that makes your skin crawl. Creepy and insidious to the core, Black River Orchard whets your appetite and then turns you inside out.”—Hailey Piper, Bram Stoker Award–winning author of Queen of Teeth
“There’s a soul-unraveling blight leeching across the pages of Chuck Wendig’s Black River Orchard, an irresistible kind of charming decay that traps the reader in this eerie orchard and renders them completely spellbound. This will undoubtedly be heralded as one of the finest horror novels of the twenty-first century.”—Eric LaRocca, author of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke