Author Chuck Wendig is back with more horror to chill readers looking for a scare. Wendig previously released The Book of Accidents and the young adult novel Dust & Grim. This time around, Wendig turns the focus on forbidden fruit. An apple from an orchard that hides a dark secret, and leaves the consumer insatiably hungry for more. Here’s the official synopsis.
It’s autumn in the town of Harrow, but something besides the season is changing there.
Because in that town there is an orchard, and in that orchard, seven most unusual trees. And from those trees grows a new sort of apple: strange, beautiful, with skin so red it’s nearly black.
Take a bite of one of these apples, and you will desire only to devour another. And another. You will become stronger. More vital. More yourself, you will believe. But then your appetite for the apples and their peculiar gifts will keep growing—and become darker.
This is what happens when the townsfolk discover the secret of the orchard. Soon it seems that everyone is consumed by an obsession with the magic of the apples . . . and what’s the harm, if it is making them all happier, more confident, more powerful?
Even if something else is buried in the orchard besides the seeds of these extraordinary trees: a bloody history whose roots reach back to the very origins of the town.
But now the leaves are falling. The days grow darker. It’s harvest time, and the town will soon reap what it has sown.
And we have an exclusive sneak peek at an excerpt from the upcoming novel. Consider it an amuse-bouche, before you fully dive into the Black River Orchard, eating your fill of the dark apples that grow there. Pre-order your copy of Black River Orchard before it hits bookstore shelves September 26, and enjoy the sampling below.
