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Peter Straub: "The perfect ghost story for a contemporary Halloween, The Night Country follows its grousing, observant, funny teenage revenants from the graveyard to the Dunkin' Donuts and convenience stores of a wounded, well-off Connecticut town as they take care of some grim and unfinished business, demonstrating along the way that the horror novel and literature can live quite happily within a single set of covers."
Jennifer Egan: "In The Night Country, Stewart O'Nan has concocted a twisted, mischievous little tale of the hereafter, told with his signature unlikely mix of meticulousness and brio. He is without question one of the strongest writers of our generation."
Chris Offutt: "On Halloween night, the anniversary of tragedy, three teenage ghosts tell a moving story of a tragic car crash. Only Stewart O'Nan has the audacity and skill to reveal the secrets of small town life in such a deft manner. The book rockets to its inevitable surprise like a high speed chase. The Night Country is a gothic novel for the twenty-first century."
Michael Martone: "In The Night Country, Stewart O'Nan crafts a po-mo version of Poe at his best. The unlucky band of teens who haunt the scenes of their lives and demise touchingly sift through the shimmering residue of the past as well as the countless ghostly narratives that saturate our still Gothic culture. The book is self-consciously creepy and that makes it even creepier. It is also heartstopping at the same time it is heartbreaking."
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The Barnes & Noble Review
Already noted for novels filled with darkly stunning themes and images (The Names of the Dead, A Prayer for the Dying), Stewart O'Nan enters the realm of the supernatural with a thoughtful, sorrowful, and moving tale that revels in its Halloween backdrop.
One year after the tragic car accident that claimed the lives of three teenagers, their families and friends continue to agonize over the continuing consequences. O'Nan's narrative voice is graceful, meditative, and filled with a tension that underscores elements of the truly mournful. The three ghosts act as a chorus to explore the minds of the tragedy's survivors, including the police officer who is at least partly responsible. At turns humorous, forgiving, childish, and rude, they are at the mercy of whichever hometown resident happens to be concentrating on them at any given time, so that the spirits are forced to "beam in" on various neighbors. Each of these characters tells his own story, allowing O'Nan to smoothly switch vistas and provide a vivid panorama of emotion and understanding.
The Night Country is as much about being haunted by guilt, doubt, and responsibility as it is about being plagued by ghosts. Stewart O'Nan has not only given us a masterpiece of chilling poignancy; he's also written one of the most engaging, human, and heartfelt novels of the year.
Tom Piccirilli
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A ghost story that begins in everyday tragedy, from a distinctly American master of both forms: a "scary, sad, funny . . . mesmerizing read" (Stephen King)
At Midnight on Halloween in a cloistered New England suburb, a car carrying five teenagers leaves a winding road and slams into a tree, killing three of them. One escapes unharmed, another suffers severe brain damage. A year later, summoned by the memories of those closest to them, the three that died come back on a last chilling mission among the living.
A strange and unsettling ghost story in the tradition of Ray Bradbury and Shirley Jackson, The Night Country creeps through the leaf-strewn streets and quiet cul-de-sacs of one bedroom community, reaching into the desperately connected yet isolated lives of three people changed forever by the accident: Tim, who survived yet lost everything; Brooks, the cop whose guilty secret has destroyed his life; and Kyle's mom, trying to love the new son the doctors returned to her. As the day wanes and darkness falls, one of them puts a terrible plan into effect, and they find themselves caught in a collision of need and desire, watched over by the knowing ghosts.
Macabre and moving, The Night Country elevates every small town's bad high school crash into myth, finding the deeper human truth beneath a shared and very American tragedy. As in his highly-prized Snow Angels and A Prayer for the Dying, once again Stewart O'Nan gives us an intimate look at people trying to hold on to hope, and the consequences when they fail.
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