I have always said that I love debut novels, but it isn’t often that I get to read a debut novel that is this well-crafted, this engrossing, and this much fun. With a truly unique balance of humour and horror, McLaughlin and Neal have established a world that is instantly both familiar and fascinating.
The story is set in 1992, in the small North Carolina town of Bleak Creek, and with this setting comes all the 90’s nostalgia you could want! From New Kids of the Block to Hyper Color T-shirts, those of us that remember that time can’t help but smile, (and those that don’t probably can’t help but laugh at us), either way, it’s a good time.
Our main characters are Rex McClendon and Leif Nelson, who McLaughlin and Neal have readily admitted are based on themselves, at least in part. The town of Bleak Creek is also (somewhat) based on the small North Carolina town where they grew up, which has undoubtedly helped them to create such a richly textured world. In addition, if you have ever lived in the South, particularly in a small town, you will most certainly recognise the cast of characters in this book!
While there are both expected, and unexpected, laughs throughout the book, this is ultimately a thriller/horror story that gets dark in both real and supernatural ways. There is a local reform school (with a history of suspicious deaths), called Whitewood School, that looms over the youth of Bleak Creek, with everyone frightened about what kind of infraction might result in them being sent to Whitewood. Yet they aren’t even aware of some of the very real horrors that are happening there.
It isn’t just the youth of Bleak Creek who are suspicious of Whitewood. Janine Blitstein, a former resident of Bleak Creek who is now working as a documentary film-maker, is back in town and clearly not welcomed by many of the residents. Besides her grandmother, lovingly referred to as “GamGam,” her aunt, and her cousin Donna, who she had once been very close to, Janine no longer has connections to Bleak Creek. But as circumstances change in the community, she is pulled into the orbit of Rex and Leif as they all seek to find out what secrets are being held by the town and its residents.
With themes of friendship, teenage angst, relationships, and courage, the story is structured in a clever, interesting way that keeps the reader glued to the page and engrossed in the well-drawn, very real characters that have been created. The cleverly plotted resolution is yet another aspect that sets this book apart from so many other debut novels. Best of all, the story is resolved in a way that lends itself to possible sequels (fingers-crossed!) It is definitely a world you will want to revisit.
The Lost Causes of Bleak Creek is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
It’s 1992 in Bleak Creek, North Carolina, a sleepy little place with all the trappings of an ordinary Southern town: two Baptist churches, friendly smiles coupled with silent judgments, and a seemingly unquenchable appetite for pork products. Beneath the town’s cheerful façade, however, Bleak Creek teens live in constant fear of being sent to the Whitewood School, a local reformatory with a record of putting unruly tees back on the straight and narrow – a record so impeccable that almost everyone is willing to ignore the mysterious deaths that have occurred there over the past decade.
At first, high school freshmen Rex McClendon and Leif Nelson believe what they’ve been told – that the students’ strange demises were all tragic accidents. But when the shoot for their low-budget horror masterpiece, PolterDog, goes horribly awry – and their best friend Alicia Boykins, is sent to Whitewood as punishment – Rex and Leif are forced to question everything they know about their unassuming hometown and its cherished school for delinquents.
Eager to rescue their friend, Rex and Leif pair up with recent NYU film school grad Janine Blitstein to begin piecing together the unsettling truth of the school and its mysterious founder, Wayne Whitewood. What they find, with Alicia’s life hanging in the balance, will leave them battling an evil beyond their wildest teenage imaginations – one that will shake Bleak Creek to its core.
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