Coming September 2024
“A dark fairy tale with blood in its teeth, a vintage Iron Maiden T-shirt on its hairy back, and a big, beating heart.” –Grady Hendrix, author of How to Sell a Haunted House
They just wanted to get Burger King, and maybe make a little money. But middle school paperboys Sigmone, Joel, Ryan, Mark, Nishu, and Al are in for the adventure of a lifetime one winter’s night in 1987.
Meanwhile, their manager, Kevin, is totally about to score with this neighborhood chick. There’s something weird about her sister, though …
Funny, thrilling, filthy, and sneakily beautiful, Hampton Heights captures without sentimentality the dreams and fears of teenage boys in a tender horror-comedy about camaraderie, bravery, vulnerability, and the terrifying prospect of growing up.
“Marvelous, tender, and unpredictable, Hampton Heights captures the uncanniness and discomfort of early adolescence. There’s a pinch of Ray Bradbury, a soupçon of Stephen King, a dash of fairy tale logic, but Dan Kois makes something entirely his own out of this familiar and always pleasurable territory.” –Kelly Link, author of The Book of Love
“Written with verve, insight, heart (but not an indiscriminate one), and wit, Dan Kois's Hampton Heights is the wild reimagining of the coming-of-age novel I didn't know I needed right now.” –Paul Tremblay, author of The Cabin at the End of the World
“This betamax beaut of a book blends the best of Bradbury with a Spielbergian lens flare, taking on the terrors found in folklore and letting them rummage through the suburbs. There are most definitely stranger things to be uncovered in Milwaukee, and thank goodness Kois chronicles them all.” –Clay McLeod Chapman, author of What Kind of Mother and Ghost Eaters
“Like Stand by Me mixed with Stranger Things and The Twilight Zone, Hampton Heights is a rollicking chronicle of youth set loose among mystery and monsters. Dan Kois deftly conjures a boundless world that's chilling, wondrous, and delightful.” –Adam Sternbergh, author of The Eden Test