On 27 April 1997,four contestants make it to the final cell of the Quigley House,a full-contact haunted escape room made famous for its monstrosities. If the group can endure its horrors without shouting the safe word,'reprieve',they'll win a substantial cash prize - a startling feat accomplished only by one other group in the house's long history. But before they can complete the challenge,a man breaks into the cell and kills one of the contestants.
Those who were present on that fateful night lend their points of view: Kendra Brown,a teenager uprooted from her childhood home after the loss of her father; Leonard Grandton,a hotel manager caught in a series of toxic entanglements; and Jaidee Charoensuk,a gay international student who came to the US in search of his former English teacher. As each character's journey unfurls,deceits and misunderstandings fuelled by obsession and prejudice are revealed - forcing all to reckon with the ways in which their beliefs and actions contributed to a horrifying catastrophe.
A startlingly soulful exploration of complicity and masquerade,Reprieve combines the psychological tension of classic horror with searing social criticism,and seamlessly threads together trial transcripts,evidence descriptions,and deeply layered individual narratives to present a chilling portrait of American life.
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLCISBN: 9781526635570Number of pages: 416Dimensions: 198 x 129 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
'Reprieve takes horror as its subject,while also using the genre as its means,delivering twists and fright and the kind of storytelling that keeps you turning pages.'-Rumaan Alam,bestselling author of Leave the World Behind
'An eventual American classic that is unrelenting in its beauty and incisive cultural critique.'-Kiese Laymon,bestselling author of Heavy: An American Memoir
'A timely,devastating story about intersecting lives drawn to a dark and frightening place...Reprieve is the rare novel that will make your heart pound with terror while it aches with grief.'- Jung Yun,author of Shelter
'Surprising and spellbinding,Mattson's latest offering is a page-turner that keeps you guessing right until the explosive end...A must-read!'- T. Geronimo Johnson,bestselling author of Welcome to Braggsville
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