From Publishers Weekly
In her assured but overstuffed horror debut, Langan lovingly crafts the struggling town of Bedford, Maine, its unlucky inhabitants and the troubling history of the town's shuttered paper mill, before tearing it all to bloody pieces. Bedford is haunted by the beautiful Susan Marley, a damaged young woman who wanders the streets and never speaks a word, stirring "feeling[s] of something undone, something quite wrong, at the sight of her." Those feelings are strongest in Susan's maladjusted little sister, Liz, wracked with guilt over Susan's fate; their mother, who refuses to acknowledge her wayward daughter's existence; and alcoholic high school teacher Paul Martin, who once had an affair with Susan. Susan's fall to her death in the final, rain-soaked days of winter triggers a series of events that bring the buried secrets of the town to terrifying reality—people and animals rise from the dead, and a spirit of homicidal rage grips the living. Fighting to survive, Langan's characters come brilliantly to life, their inner conflicts rendered in sharp but exhausting detail at once expansive and constricting, slowing the narrative to a crawl just before it whips into frenzied, graphic violence. This is horror on a big scale, akin to the more ambitious work of Stephen King, and though Langan's enormous imagination can slow her narrative, this effective debut promises great things to come.
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Review
"Deft and disturbing... twists expectations into surreal surprises... hypnotic reading - an assured and impressive debut." (Douglas E. Winter )
"[A] distinct and juicy flavor all its own. THE KEEPER begins what should be a very fruitful career." (Peter Straub, New York Times bestselling author of IN THE NIGHT ROOM )
"A smart, brand-new take on the haunted house story.hard to believe this is a first novel." (Jack Ketchum, author of OFFSPRING )
"Langan has a sharp eye for the small vivid details of American life, and her characters are utterly believable. Reminiscent of early Stephen King, this is not for the squeemish" (London Times )
"[A] brilliant debut, heralding the arrival of a major talent." (Tim Lebbon, author of DUSK and BERSERK )
"An astonishing first novel...chilling, haunting, and so smartly written that the pages fly by like the wind." (Ray Garton, author of THE LOVELIEST DEAD )
"A dark and bracingly bleak tale of supernatural terror." (Ramsey Campbell, author of SECRET STORY )
"recalls Edgar Allan Poe" (Washington Times )
"it's hard to put down..." (Washington Times )
"it's the only horror story I've read recently that finds adequate metaphors for the self-destructive properties of anger." (New York Times Book Review )
"Echoes of Stephen King resound...the first fruits of a most promising career." (Washington Times )
"Akin to the more ambitious work of Stephen King...this effective debut promises great things to come." (Publishers Weekly )
"THE KEEPER kept me up, late into the night...I'm hoping for a whole shelf of novels by Langan." (Kelly Link, author of MAGIC FOR BEGINNERS )
