About the Book
"Splendid . . . what really sells this imaginative, scary, verge-of-growing-up tale is its characters, each with a distinct voice and personality. . . . Kois' surprising second novel is a natural for fans of the character-based horror fiction of Grady Hendrix or Paul Tremblay and will win him a whole new sphere of readers." —Booklist
"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
"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
From the author of the Washington Post notable novel Vintage Contemporaries, something completely unexpected: a hair-raising and rollicking adventure set on one night in 1987, when six paperboys must confront a slew of monsters as well as their own personal demons in a haunted Midwestern neighborhood.
On a cold winter’s evening in 1987, six middle-school paperboys wander an unfamiliar Milwaukee neighborhood, selling newspaper subscriptions, fueled by their manager Kevin’s promises of cash bonuses and dinner at Burger King. But the freaks come out at night in Hampton Heights. Sent out into the neighborhood in pairs, the boys will encounter a host of primordial monsters—and triumph over them.
Sigmone, who is bussed to a white school, is stuck with Joel, a white kid who idolizes Black culture. Mark, who's wrestling with his sexuality, joins his secret crush, Ryan. Nishu and Al are outsiders; one is a second-generation immigrant, the other a poor kid in a rich school. Over the course of one eventful evening, the three pairs will encounter the wild things of Hampton Heights—werewolves, witches with a centuries-old story to tell, and a creepy, ancient monster who feeds on memories. Meanwhile, Kevin is having an adventure of his own, seducing a beautiful woman in the neighborhood’s tavern . . . but who is actually in control?
Funny, thrilling, outrageous, and sneakily beautiful, Dan Kois’s 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.
About the Author :
Dan Kois is a writer, editor, and podcaster at Slate, where his work has been nominated for two National Magazine Awards and two Writers Guild Awards. He's the author of the novel Vintage Contemporaries; How to Be a Family, a memoir; The World Only Spins Forward (with Isaac Butler), which was a 2019 Stonewall Honor Book; and Facing Future, a book of music criticism and biography. He is a frequent guest and host of Slate's Culture Gabfest podcast, was a founding host of Slate's Mom and Dad Are Fighting podcast, and hosts The Martin Chronicles, a podcast about Martin Amis. He grew up in Milwaukee, where his first job was delivering the Milwaukee Sentinel, and now lives with his family in Virginia.
Review :
"Splendid . . . what really sells this imaginative, scary, verge-of-growing-up tale is its characters, each with a distinct voice and personality. . . . Kois' surprising second novel is a natural for fans of the character-based horror fiction of Grady Hendrix or Paul Tremblay and will win him a whole new sphere of readers." — Booklist
“Delightfully immature and authentic dialogue, a refreshing lack of cynicism, and some genuinely unnerving threats all help elevate an engaging and eerie adventure.” — Kirkus Reviews
"The joy of this book is in Kois’s warm, thoughtful depictions of the boys and the neighborhood. . . . There’s magic to be found everywhere, the book seems to say, especially where you least expect it." — New York Times
“Kois has created a fun little tale in Hampton Heights that has a great nostalgia feel of kids being kids and going on adventures, but at times crossing over into the dark and scary. Strong individual characters help carry the story along to a satisfying conclusion.” — Manhattan Review of Books
"Highly entertaining . . . . Hampton Heights is a definite pleasure." — Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
“Entertaining, touching, and funnier than I expected, this short novel about a group of kids spending a night trying to sell newspaper subscriptions in a haunted neighborhood takes some beloved horror tropes – witches, werewolves, trolls – and makes them feel fresh. …. Surprisingly tender but also full of childish scatological humor, Hampton Heights is a love letter to horror and growing from an author who clearly loves the genre.”
— Locus Magazine
“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, New York Times bestselling author of The Final Girl Support Group and How to Sell a Haunted House
"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 White Cat, Black Dog
"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, on Hampton Heights
“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, bestselling author of The Cabin at the End of the World and Horror Movie: A Novel, on Hampton Heights
