Coming of Age: Three Dark Novellas

Book excerpt: Coming of age can mean murder...or monsters. 400 pages of a triple-feature of suspense and supernatural thrills, containing Purity, The Words, and The Attraction. Three short novels all packed into one cool book – NY Times bestselling and Bram Stoker Award-winning author Douglas Clegg's most frightening and fascinating chillers of suspense, horror and...coming of age. * * * In Purity, the darkest force is love. From award-winning author Douglas Clegg comes a twisting, dark psychological thriller of dangerous obsession. "Purity is a gripping, shocking story of love, turning 18 and murder." -Doubleshot Reviews "Douglas Clegg turns the screws dexterously in this sleek, multifaceted suspense story...in a vacation paradise saturated in alcohol, entitlement and hypocrisy..." - Publisher's Weekly. "Clegg writes gut-wrenchingly beautiful horror, painful adolescence, abuse, sociopathic alienation, and coming home - are all at play here, as are characters who play each other and themselves...for keeps."- Chizine. * * * In The Words, two boys discover a secret world of monsters...When teenager Mark befriends outsider Dash, he believes his new friend to be an outcast rebel. But a dark mystery unfolds as Dash leads Mark into dangerous games and rituals involving stories of the occult and a strange drug that allows Dash to see into another world—a world of absolute darkness and terror. "Douglas Clegg's The Words is a real stunner ...Using the novella form to its utmost..."—Somebody Dies Blog Reviews * * * "A terrifying quick punch of horror."* The Attraction is a drive-in movie-style horror chiller of roadside terror, 200 pages in print! The signs along the desert highway read Come See the Mystery! But some mysteries should remain buried forever -- like the terrifying creature at the back of the Brakedown Palace Gas & Sundries Emporium. "...A vivid story that will separate the timid from their sleep and the bold from their complacency whenever they next visit a sideshow or museum mummy display!"—Midwest Book Review. *"Clegg takes the idea of a cheapjack tourist hustle for a decrepit gas station in middle-of-nowhere Arizona and turns it into a terrifying quick punch of horror…"—Alternate Reality Web Zine Reviews. "I couldn't put this book down. It grabbed me on the first page and wouldn't let go. I ended up reading most of the night away...The story moves at an incredible rate and never lags."—Horror World Reviews.