Disappearance at Devil's Rock: A Novel

Here Be Spoilers. But, first... Tremblay is terrifically talented. His prose is clear, inviting and, if anything, at least here, too filled with detail. In fact, this book drags, but only because we're really engaged and want him to get ON with it. We want to find out what happens next, not get trapped in yet another emotional, intellectual and confusing debate about what has already, or what has just, happened. There is a lot of repetition in this book. Too many scenes recur four or five times.For example; the scenes with the boys at Devil's Rock. All beautifully written, the characters distinct and engrossing, but they are all, all of these scenes, essentially the same scene. The subjects (zombies, Minecraft, playful insults, the strange inclusion of their most recent friend) the same, the pouring out of the un-enjoyed beers the same, the anti-climactic shambles home the same. These played-out-far-too-many-times-scenes serve as, if as anything POSITIVE, a gradual build up to what MUST be a MONUMENTAL PURPOSE! A purpose that, for some reason, we eventually discover, the author either can't, or won't fulfill. SO disappointing!These, as well as the other much repeated scenes, serve, in our hopefull minds, as a kind of drumroll, a count down, and at the count down's end, when we finally reach "one", INSTEAD OF WHAT COULD AND SHOULD AND MUST HAPPEN, TOMMY'S RETURN HOME... we get NOT Tommy's return, NOT a DIFFERENT BIG DELICIOUS SOMETHING, a HUGE REVEAL or a FINALLY COHERENT EXPLANATION, or just a REASON or a PURPOSE for why this novel EXISTS. nope! We get ZIP!We reach NO worthy conclusions. We get NO satisfying results to the novel's MANY overworked themes. Like, dopplegangers. Felt pressences. Zombies. Minecraft (one's both personal and collective creation of an alternate reality). Tommy's diary entries and their expressed fear that Tommy isn't JUST Tommy anymore. His creation of "The Shadowman". Each diary entry concluded with the cryptic words; "Don't worry. I'm still here." Which would lead one to TOMMY'S RETURN! But... Nope. ALL OF THESE THEMES TOGETHER are the perfect set up for what I feel I was made to believe (and hope for) That the dead body found on the island is that of the "Shadow Man". Tommy's doppleganger. His "zombie double". The fact that Tommy is SEEN chasing HIMSELF! MY GOD! ALL THAT has to mean SOMETHING!I mean, to what OTHER purpose did the author so obviously set the stage? For a sad, common, pointless, meaningless BLAH of an ending? To just philosophically blather on about all these cool possibilities only, ultimately, to ABANDON them? Regardless, I was all set for Tommy's triumphant return, what with all of the thematic and magic moments that so clearly MADE CLEAR a path for his return, and then, drumroll, count down, and... NOTHING. I just don't GET it. We're set up for a plausible, almost destined Happy Ending, then Mr. Tremblay simply DROPS his handful of narrative threads, rather than finally weaving them into SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL! This author loves his ambiguous endings FAR to much. Which makes all too clear his willingness to also disappoint.To have created, to have carefully crafted, a story about a loving family, the GIGANTIC inconsistencies, magical discussions, appearences, that occur during one member's disappearance, the ENDLESS talk about doubles, zombies, dopplegangers, the living projecting their own living images, the creation of the Shadow Man, the WITNESSES OCCURANCES of Tommy CHASING HIMSELF! The fact that Tommy, after his disappearance, had INDEED BEEN LIVING on a small island, until a RECENT confrontation with his enabler-enemy! A confrontation which Tommy could well have WON. Indeed, SHOULD HAVE WON. ARNOLD'S dead body should have been found with his own damn pennies pressed into his eyes. Either THAT or, even better in every way, the dead Tommy that's found on the island is SHADOW TOMMY! Tommy's zombie-like double whom Tommy had to kill in order to move on with his life! PERFECT! But, the fact that the wonderful Mr. Tremblay, by so clearly laying out his themes, carefully and purposefully set up SOME KIND OF WORTHY ENDING for this magic-filled book... AND THEN DIDN'T WRITE IT... makes me feel sad and empty and confused. Rather than write the ending of the book he'd thus far written, he just DROPS IT, as if it was TOO right, TOO planned, TOO satisfying. As if writing a horror novel with a happy ending is a contradiction in terms. He abandons what I believe to be his novel's true ending, in an act of literary self-sabotage the likes of which I've not come across in quite a while, and ends it in the most common, typical, boring, upsetting, "Well, after ALL THAT he's just DEAD and we'll just have to cry a lot and resolve never to forget him while trying to move on with our sadly pathetic ordinary lives..." These characters deserved more. WE deserved more. MUCH more! We read, and sometimes suffered through, this entire book, KNOWING that we MUST BE being prepared for ONE HE'LL OF AN ENDING, only to experience the dull, nauseated non-feeling of "What the hell?" This potentially fascinating novel just DROPPED, as if TOTALLY INSIGNIFICANT, it's most fascinating themes and ideas, in favor of a n offensive, lame, soap opera ending of merely enduring loss. BOO!The intensity of my disappointment is a tribute to this writer's ability to make me, a dedicated reader, really CARE, and his ability to, once he's grabbed onto me for a while, drop me into a fast food dumpster. Rather than lift me up to a magical, wondrous and satisfying Horror Palace In The Sky, he pulls of the road and drops me off in the parking lot of a sadly NOT deserted, suburban strip mall. Again, boo.

Disappearance at Devil's Rock by Paul Tremblay:I'm almost glad the book is just OK. Otherwise the story would have devastated me. A family is in crisis when 13-year Tommy goes missing. Hisyounger sister and his mom are trying to live with their grief and to find answers.Good luck with that because very few answers are provided.An ambiguous ending is not the problem for me. It's more a matter of being able to suspend belief while I'm reading. Some books capture me no matter how implausible the storyline. That didn't happen with this book.The kids in this affluent area doing what they did is a big stretch for me because of how they are otherwise portrayed. Perhaps if their supposed misfit status at school were described a bit, or something...anything... to explain the violent event that sets everything in motion.Or I could be out of touch with the times (if so I'm thankful).In his author notes, Tremblay states that middle-school boys in the area really say things like "chirps" and "hardo" but regardless, would they say them that often? Ditto for the characters of all ages beginning or ending statements with "yeah" as in "you saw that, yeah?"Works a few times, but not with overuse.Based on A Head Full of Ghosts,I'd say Paul Tremblay can write. Unfortunately Disappearance is not as good as A Head Full of Ghosts.Disappearance is more like a crime novel. I like good crime novels when they work but something's missing in this book.Definitely a disturbing and very sad story. Much like some of Megan Abbott's books make me feel for parents of teenage girls, I wouldn't want to read Disappearance at Devil's Rock if I were a parent of 13-year-old boys.

At first I thought the author deliberately created parallels to the popular Netflix series Stranger Things, as a way of attracting readers. Three misfit-type teenage boys (In Stranger Things there are four boys.) hang out constantly and have been for several years, playing a game where you can build worlds (In "Disappearance..." it's Mind Craft. In Stranger Things it's Dungeons and Dragons.). One of the boys disappears. The game they play has an underworld (In "Disappearance..." it's the Netherworld. In Stranger Things it's the Upside Down.). They ride their bikes around after dark. The missing boy has a single mother who receives signs from him that others don't. Here the similarities end, though, and until I arrived at a certain point in the story, I had thought they might go on.Disappearance at Devil's Rock veers off into darker, more disturbing, less fantastical territory. The setting is a place where I've spent a lot of time. I grew up in Easton, MA (called Ames in Tremblay's book) and live here still. Borderland State Park is in Easton, MA, and the author uses the real name of the park, some mostly authentic physical features of the park and its surrounding streets. Consequently, the story haunts me more acutely than it might haunt most readers. Tremblay sends several of the characters along the Pond Trail and I walk that same trail several times a week. His characters also tread along the border of natural and supernatural landscapes. At least three characters cross that border. Two of them cross it and fall down a rabbit hole, only it's a crack in a boulder, not a rabbit hole.I would give the book five stars, but a lot of the major events and the explanations for them are revealed through the dialogue and diaries of characters whose vocabularies and sentence length and structure lack variety. The author did this deliberately because this is how the teenage characters really communicate, but it slowed down my "page turning" a bit. Most of the book is brilliant and frightening, not because zombies or ghosts are bouncing out of their hiding places after midnight, though. The most frightening concept Tremblay explores is the way people (many people, almost anyone) can face a situation and make the absolute worst decision possible, then act on it whole heartedly. Unfortunately it happens all the time and affects so many lives profoundly. There's no going back after you fall down the crack in that boulder.

This is truly a brilliant story. It kept me gripped from the first word till the last. It revolves around the disappearance of Elizabeth's son Tommy at a local landmark nicknamed devils rock ( real name split rock). You feel almost like a voyeur on the devastation and hope of a small family struggling to find answers and finally coming to terms with the tragedy which unfolds. I felt a little that some of the questions in this book weren't answered I.e what was the point of the story of the man tricking the devil and condemning him to the rock. However this didn't effect my enjoyment of the story. Reminiscent of the film lake mungo which was apparently one of the inspirations for the book along with disappearance at hanging rock. I enjoyed it and ultimately felt every gut wrenching blow. Looking forward to reading more from mr tremblay.

(SPOILERS) I couldn’t stop thinking about this story - the worry of the horrors that could at any time be affecting your teenage children whilst you, the parent is oblivious. This was the real horror for me.I couldn’t help but feel that the ending of the story, what happened to Tommy the night he disappeared, was very similar to the excellent and unnerving Australian film ‘Lake Mungo’ and wondered if this is where Tremblay drew his inspiration.An uncomfortable, frightening read which I enjoyed and will definitely read more by Tremblay.

I bought this as I have to wait to read a head full of ghost till the end of September (uk resident). so I thought i'd sample the authors writing style!This is a story of every mothers worst nightmare, a son missing and strange occurrences in the aftermath.I don't want to give the plot away for other readers but it is definitely a plot that keeps you guessing and a plot that stays with you.the characters are well written especially the central character of tommy. the extracts of his writing add a frightening touch!the mother Elizabeth is also well written and you could sense her desperation seeping out of each and every page!

I loved this until the ending.It builds up with lots of interesting (sometimes supernatural) plot clues but at the end they seem to be forgotten about.Give it a go since the ebook is cheap and it’s good overall

I found Head full ofGhosts an interesting read so thought this would be great to follow up. This book was just an endless list of pop culture references with almost zero story flow. Hard to read style and mistakes. I only made it 7% in and returned it.