Malignant Summer

It's all fun and games until the mother of dead dreams wants to play. What begins as a scavenger hunt ends in a fight for their souls. There is a lot going on in this larger than life coming of age tale. Hazardous waste dumping, a town built on abduction and assault, a supernatural entity. Now one after another the children are being diagnosed with cancer. The author weaves this all together in a spellbinding story of epic proportions. "From Almost every street corner, you could smell something rotten in the air, a fetid stink of a town gone wrong." There are lots of characters here, the high school kids, middle school kids, chemical plant workers, a couple of sets of parents, a mom in a mental institution, a teacher and principal. It was a little overwhelming at first to keep track of them all, but they each have such strong personalities and all brought a unique element to the story. Some of the residents of Hooperstown have succumbed to the evil, some have embraced it willingly. Now it's up to Doug and his friends to save themselves, and maybe the world. Not since the Losers Club have I been so invested in a group of kids, I even developed sympathy for one of the bullies after her bleak home life and abusive, drug addled parents were revealed. Clear some space, the mother of dead dreams is coming to visit you this Malignant Summer.