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Content snapshot
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Violence
Very heavy
Very graphic horror violence; deaths of many characters; the supernatural entity's predation is graphically depicted
Language
Some
Moderate language; some period-1982 register
Sexual Content
A lot
Strong; sexual violence is part of the horror; some explicit content
Substance Use
Some
Moderate; characters drink under stress
Emotional Intensity
Very heavy
Very strong; the horror of evil that wears familiar faces; the suburban setting as the source of dread; Straub's ambition to write the definitive horror novel of its era
What this book is about
Peter Straub's massive horror novel from 1982 is set in Hampstead, Connecticut, where a toxic gas leak from a military research facility may — or may not — be connected to a supernatural entity awakening after decades. Four people are linked across time by the entity and must stop it. Straub writes horror with literary ambition: the town's history, its secrets, and the nature of the evil are all elaborated with unusual depth.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
Very graphic violence
Sexual violence
Horror at a high level of intensity
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