Fast read and enjoyable. Not rememberable though, if I'm being honest. I received a free eARC of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this opportunity.

Casey’s hometown is a hellhole, but hell is just getting worse. In Shannon Felton’s debut novella, The Prisoners of Stewartville, a town pays the price for all the misery it’s produced during its history. An interesting look at small-town life in a place with nothing going for it, Felton deftly uses pace to build to an explosive conclusion.

The story begins with a hole in a basement wall leading to a tunnel, an angry mother, and an embarrassing incident. From there, Felton spins this tale into a city-wide drug epidemic and a ghost panic among a small group of friends who have nothing else to do besides get high and hope the future doesn’t land them in the prison that is the town’s main source of employment. Casey watches as friend after friend, family member after family member, are taken by the ghosts, both literal and figurative, haunting the town. Felton follows this story to its logical conclusion and doesn’t pull any punches when she gets to the end. She proves herself as a master of suspense with this story, which reminds me of the works of Stephen Graham Jones and Joe Lansdale.

The narrator, Casey, is easy to feel for. His life is one big struggle, with his mother in jail for dealing drugs, his brother giving up a scholarship to help raise him, and his Nana is too old to help much at all. As things sink deeper into the troubles caused by the ghosts of the town, Casey reacts in realistic ways, both heroically and tragically. His relationships with his friends ring true, but there are two standouts. The way he and his brother, Shane, care for each other in the middle of such poverty is touching, and when Shane begins to sink into drug use, Casey’s sadness is gut-wrenching. Felton also does an outstanding job with the complicated relationship between Casey and Camille, the girl who used to be his closest friend but ended up letting him down. The way he comes to trust her again and the repercussions from that decision really make the ending resonate.

The town itself might be the most important character in the novella. Stewartville was a mining town until a strike led to the company building the prison and filling it full of miners. The burning of the local school in retaliation didn’t improve matters, and now, in the present, there’s nothing there but drugs, the prison, and a concrete factory. Not a place people are dying to occupy. Felton digs deep into the ennui of the local teens and does a great job showing how such a town impacts everyone who lives there, making the location itself a major motivation for multiple character motivations. The way she does this reminds me of early Stephen King. She doesn’t go into as much detail as he would in novels such as Salem’s Lot or The Shining, but considering that this is a novella, I’d say it’s a strong job of integrating setting indeed. I wouldn’t mind seeing more stories set in this depressing town, if she walks the tightrope as well as she does in this story. She balances the doom and gloom with a light touch and strong characterization…and leaves readers with one final terror.

You can buy this fantastic debut here.

I tend to be very selective with indie genre offerings, since a lot of them leave so much to be desired. This one, though, was surprisingly good.
It could have veered YA, given the seventeen-year-old protagonists but it didn't. It could have gone tedious in the vein of white trash crime, but it didn't. Avoiding many easy traps, this lean novel stuck to its basic premise of building and maintaining a thoroughly and eerily claustrophobic environment in the shape of a small prison town. There is evil all around Stewartville, creeping in closer and closer, but the true nature of it takes a while to reveal itself. Sometimes the most monstrous things look back from the mirror.
A tough-as-nails coming-of-age story with a twist and solid fun for genre fans. Thanks Netgalley.

This is a fast read but so good! I love small town horror and this author did a great job at captivating the creepy small town feel and dark secrets. I will definitely be on the lookout for more by this author.

Found another small town horror!
This one is really good, first time read for this author, and I will be looking forward to more.

This whole book builds on the creepy factor of small towns, and dark corners of humanity, and dark secrets of the past.

I come from a small town, and while I don't think we had anything like this, it still struck way to close to home, small towns, haunted or not, feel the same when you know how dark they really are beneath the surface.