It all starts with a house.

A compelling, insistent and unsettling mood permeates this novel as Spivey; a down-at-luck, alienated teenager suffering from Cancer, receives a house and an island in an unexpected inheritance from a grandmother he hardly knows. It is both a life-altering escape from his overbearing, grasping parents and a burden with a list of arcane and cryptic maintenance rules. Spivey’s best friend, Billy, watches him unravel trying to manage his new found freedom, which includes an almost cult-like teenage entourage, ready to take advantage of the libertarian ethos on the adult-free island. What starts off as typical teenage rebellion against authority, soon escalates into a terrifying and rapid downward spiral into anarchy and degradation. This is an immersive and jolting approach to the genre, with an impotent narrator helplessly witnessing his vulnerable friend being transformed by his embrace of the abyss. Iconic horror tropes are manipulated and repositioned with precise craft by the incisive and knowing pen of J.D. Barker. Definitely an incipient master of the craft. A must-read for any fan of the genre.