At his invitation, they attend a party at the festival, in the middle of which Val runs away. Val becomes enamored with Eli despite the lead singer’s anti-Hollow stance. On their way, they meet No Flash Photography, one of the bands.

Zoey, Celeste, Jasmine, and Valeria, who all suffer from Hollowness, are headed to the Desert Bloom music festival in the Mojave Desert. Fortunately, lab-grown SynFlesh allows them to lead mostly normal lives. Those affected by the Hollowing developed the need and desire to consume human flesh. Two years ago, humanity was forever changed when melting permafrost unleashed a strange pathogen. We demand sequels.Ĭalifornia victims of a climate change–induced pandemic uncover a deadly plot. (Don't go in the basement.)Ībundantly original, marvelously inventive and enormous fun, this can stand alongside the best horror fiction out there. The comedy works even better when juxtaposed against serious suspense, as Cas quips such lines as “I hate it when they don’t have eyes.” Matter-of-fact Anna leavens the comedy even as the suspense boils into terror. Blake populates the story with a nice mixture of personalities, including Anna, and spices it with plenty of gallows humor, all the while keeping the suspense pounding. Meanwhile, Cas learns that Anna won’t kill him, so he enlists her aid in tracking down the voodoo spirit that literally ate his father. These help him until one steals the athame, an unfortunate choice. When he answers a call to dispatch Anna, a ghost that’s brutally dismembered dozens of ill-fated folks who stepped into her house, for the first time Cas makes some friends. He only kills ghosts who kill humans, but plenty of those lurk everywhere, forcing Cas and his white-witch mother to move constantly.

Theseus Cassio Lowood has inherited his father’s athame, a magical knife that can slice and dice ghosts to bits. Teeth-chattering suspense and suppressed chuckles might attack readers in this superior black comedy/adventure. Life can get tough for a boy who kills ghosts.

Anna dressed in blood by kendare blake