Dead Set

September 16, 2013
Sixteen-year-old Zoe, grieving the death of her father, is miserable in a new home and a new school as her mother struggles to make ends meet. Zoe’s father taught her to be a fan of classic punk bands, and the music is her one connection to him and to her fellow students. Then Ammut, a mysterious record store owner, promises he can reunite Zoe with her father’s spirit. Soon Zoe finds herself in Iphigene, a city full of souls trapped on their way to the afterlife, as she’s guided by the ghost of her dead brother on a quest to free her father’s soul and return to the world of the living. Aiming for a mythic story about grief and loss, Kadrey (the Sandman Slim series) hits some extremely familiar beats, but he does it with an easy grace. Nothing about this book is unexpected or surprising, but perhaps it doesn’t need to be. This bittersweet and elegiac fantasy will appeal to both fantasy fans and mainstream readers. Agent: Ginger Clark, Curtis Brown.

October 15, 2013

After her father's death, Zoe and her mother move to an apartment in the city. Only in her dreams, where she meets with her imaginary brother, Valentine, does Zoe feel comfortable--until the day she discovers a nameless shop that sells vinyl records. The owner takes an interest in her and shows her his special discs: "records" of the lives of people who have died, including Zoe's father. He agrees to let Zoe view her father's life for a small price--a lock of her hair. To see more, he demands a tooth and then asks even more. Zoe is an engaging protagonist, and her struggles to find herself are universal, even if her means of doing so are unusual. VERDICT The author of the Sandman Slim novels (Sandman Slim; Devil Said Bang) has crafted an intelligent stand-alone tale of quiet horror that should appeal to his many fans as well as to lovers of more subtle shivers. [See Prepub Alert, 5/13/13.]

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2013

New York Times best-selling author Kadrey, soon to be a guest of honor at the San Diego Comic-Con International 2013, takes a break from his Sandman Slim novels with this story of Zoe, bereft after her father's death and a move to the Big City with her mother. For solace, she escapes to a dreamscape where she can visit her lost brother, though the atmosphere is subtly disturbed by a new, unseen presence. Then, at a used record store, she discovers vinyl discs whose grooves hold not music but lost souls and realizes that she might be able to reach her father. It will cost her, though. Stop by to hear Kadrey speak at a United for Libraries panel at ALA; with a 75,000-copy first printing.

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2013
Known for writing quirky supernatural-themed books, Kadrey's latest offering doesn't stray far from the formula cherished by his readers. Zoe's having a bad time: Her father died and left the teen and her mom almost destitute. They've moved into a fourth-floor walk-up in a sketchy neighborhood, Mom's trying to get back into the job market after many years, and Zoe isn't crazy about her new high school, where the only person with whom she's made friends is a girl who calls herself Absynthe. Then Zoe wanders into a store selling rare old vinyl records. Her parents were heavily involved in the early punk music scene, and she's grown up with a huge library of LPs, but this store has something besides ordinary music in it. Zoe stumbles upon a room that holds some odd-looking records and a weird machine that the creepy and strange looking proprietor says can help her connect with her dead father. When Zoe opts in, she finds that the proprietor demands an odd sort of payment each time she visits: He instructs her to bring parts of herself ranging from a lock of hair to a tooth to blood. And while that gives her pause, she also finds that the peculiar dreams she has always had are not what they seem, and the long road to finding her dead father leads to a nightmarish place where bad things happen. While the tale's both well-crafted and imaginative, it's not going to be every reader's cup of tea, although fans of zombie novels may find the author's take on the dead unique. Zoe and her family present themselves as sympathetic and interesting, but the storyline is unsettling, and the ending seems both rushed and tacked on, like the author ran out of steam in the final third of the book and just decided to get it over with. The writing is top-notch, but for many, the book will prove an acquired taste.

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