Book picks similar to
Hell is in New Jersey by Andy Thomas
fiction
fantasy
first-reads
modern-fiction
Small Town Ho: The Hilarious Story of Moving from the Big City to North Idaho
Duke Diercks - 2015
No Jobs. No friends. Just buckets of our own ignorance. Follow along in horror and hilarity as the family acclimates to the new small town way of life and the author bounces from jobs working in a school cafeteria to selling women’s clothing in a call center to opening a barbecue restaurant. Written in a smart, self-deprecating, salty style, Small Town Ho is all at once poignant and laugh-out-loud funny, full of the struggle of an ordinary family consisting of three boys, one big black lab, one assassin of a cat, and two very tired parents.
13:24
M. Dolon Hickmon - 2014
But nothing prepares him for what he’ll uncover while pursuing 14-year-old Christopher Pesner, a suspect in the brutal rage-killing of his own mother. While news reports focus on Chris’s odd obsession with the violent, blasphemous heavy metal band, Rehoboam, Hursel suspects a deeper motive — a hunch that is confirmed when Chris’s second victim is discovered. Racing to piece together the identity of Chris’s next target, Hursel unearths the shocking link between an embattled politician, a controversial evangelist and a shadowy underworld where human traffickers ply the wealthy and powerful with unseemly indulgences.[This is an alternate cover edition of 978-0-9911066-2-2]
The Flood Girls
Richard Fifield - 2016
A town where nearly all of the volunteer firemen are named Jim, where The Dirty Shame—the only bar in town—refuses to serve mixed drinks (too much work), where the locals hate the newcomers (then again, they hate the locals, too), and where the town softball team has never even come close to having a winning season. Until now.Rachel Flood has snuck back into town after leaving behind a trail of chaos nine years prior. She’s here to make amends, but nobody wants to hear it, especially her mother, Laverna. But with the help of a local boy named Jake and a little soul-searching, she just might make things right.In the spirit of Empire Falls and A League of Their Own, with the caustic wit of Where’d You Go, Bernadette thrown in for good measure, Richard Fifield’s hilarious and heartwarming debut will have you laughing through tears.
Starbuck Nantucket Redemption
Garth Jeffries - 2020
Peter Bois is one of the wealthiest men on Nantucket but is far from successful; his business is being picketed for polluting the oceans, his wife wants a divorce, and his best friend is dead. But fate has plans for him.On a picnic at the beach with his alienated family, Peter is caught up in a riptide and transported back in time to the early 19th-century as a greenhand on a Nantucket whaleship, clueless to where he is and ignorant to what is expected of him. Struggling to accept his new reality, he must confront the man he is and come to grips with life nearly two hundred years in the past as the ship pursues whales and battles storms thousands of miles out to sea. His only help? A crewman who looks and acts just like his dead best friend.On a voyage bristling with danger and death, Peter must survive long enough to figure out how to get back to his own time and back to where he can right his many wrongs.Engaging and innovative, this fast-paced and uplifting novel is a must-read for audiences young and old.
Dreamhouse
Alison Habens - 1996
When she finally met her fiance, it was less a romantic event than a satisfying check mark next to the last item on a long list of tasks. Now Celia's big night has arrived, and nothing can stop her from fulfilling a lifetime's worth of dreams. Nothing, that is, except her hated housemates, each planning a party for this same evening. Suddenly careening between future in-laws, radical feminists, and an Alice in Wonderland costume party, Celia veers off the path to married bliss, and along a path of suspicious raspberry tarts that lead her into very strange places.
Blood Oath, Blood River
Michael Richan - 2014
As a result, humans developed cancers and congenital malformations… and so did the creatures in the River, the place where people with “the gift” see things others cannot. Twenty-year-old Deem is gifted, but she is on her own without her mentor, her late father. Deem’s family is now targeted by a strange creature that climbs on their roof at night and infects the house with poison. With help from the charismatic Winn, Deem tries to stop the attacks, but this is only the beginning, with more ghosts, Callers, and mutated creatures to come. Deem met Steven and Roy when she helped save their son from the ghosts at St. Thomas. She was impressed by Roy’s use of their ancestors’ journals to assist with their work. Deem is confident her father left behind a journal for her somewhere, but her dangerous search becomes riddled with menacing secrets and revelations, putting people’s lives at risk. Deem and Winn are not alone; they are helped by Awan, a handsome Paiute who knows Native American tradition and can explain the strange forces targeting Deem. They also meet Carma, a friendly soul with a fantastic and valuable secret buried in her house. "Blood Oath, Blood River" is the first book in The Downwinders Series, a spinoff of The River Series, in which Deem and Winn first appear in Book Six, "Devil’s Throat". "Blood Oath, Blood River" is a stand-alone novel; no prior experience with The River Series is necessary to enjoy it. Fans of The River Series will be intrigued by this new exploration of the River, set in a place where downwind radiation has made the ghosts and creatures of the River strange and unpredictable.
The Calling
Ken Altabef - 2012
A restless Wind spirit... A treacherous shaman... A golden walrus... And one courageous young girl. . In the frozen north, a land of deadly weather and unforgiving spirits, the shaman is all that stands in the way of disaster. When Alaana is called upon to become shaman for the Anatatook people she discovers a kaleidoscopic world where everything is alive, where the tent skins whisper at night and even the soapstone pot has tales to tell. She faces vengeful ghosts and hungry demons as she travels the dangerous path to becoming a shaman. And there's just one other problem. Girls aren't allowed to be shamans. This is Book One in an epic fantasy series with a unique arctic setting. All fans of fantasy will enjoy these five novels.
The Gatekeeper's Son
C.R. Fladmark - 2014
Not a bad deal…except his grandfather’s in the hospital, and now someone’s trying to destroy the company. Junya can’t imagine who (or what) would have it in for his family, but he’s positive it has something to do with the heavily guarded safe in his grandfather’s office. Yet the deeper he digs, the stranger things become: earthquakes no one else can feel, spotting dangers no one else can sense…and being followed by strange men with reptile eyes and forked tongues.Now he’s being hunted—by his grandfather’s own men. It’s only thanks to a mysterious and beautiful Japanese exchange student that Junya’s able to escape. But why does she keep disappearing on him? How does she know so much about his family? And is she here to help him…or kill him?4.4 out of 5 Stars on Amazon.com
James Clyde and the Diamonds of Orchestra
Colm McElwain - 2012
A strange and sinister man dressed in black is also pursuing the diamond and will stop at nothing to obtain it. James and his friends set off on a perilous journey to return the diamond to its rightful place. But they are being hunted every step of the way by the relentless man in black and his blood-thirsty army. Outnumbered, James finds he must use the power of the diamond to escape their clutches - or become another victim of their murderous quest. So begins a journey that will transport them to an alternative world where they must confront the mysterious man in black for a final, winner-takes-all battle...
Scepter of Faith
Chris Smith - 2013
Troy Decker has heard it from his parents countless times. All he wants in life is a chance to prove himself and be granted his scepterthe first gift angels receive in their war against Lucifer. Standing in his way is fallen angel Kyle Downey, who used to be best friends with Troys parents but is now on a quest to destroy all that is good in the world.
Sour Lake: Or, The Beast
Bruce McCandless III - 2010
Someone, or something, is leaving the good citizens of East Texas's Ochiltree County savagely mutilated and drained of blood. Slow-talking Sheriff Reeves Duncan needs to put an end to the murders, and soon. But it won't be easy. This is the Big Thicket, dark and brooding, haunted by racial tensions and economic despair. Fortunately, Sheriff Duncan can count on the assistance of an undersized but tough-as-rawhide Texas Ranger, two physicians, a mechanical wunderkind, and a soft-spoken idiot savant who knows the sloughs and baygalls of the Thicket like his own backyard. This league of unimpressive gentlemen is about to be tested by the cunning and ferocity of an enemy that walks by night--and the tentacles of a desperate sectarian plot that threatens the very survival of the human race. Cover design by Shaun Venish.
The Walk
Lee Goldberg - 2004
Marty Slack, a TV network executive, crawls out from under his Mercedes, parked outside what once was a downtown Los Angeles warehouse, the location for a new TV show. Downtown LA is in ruins. The sky is thick with black smoke. His cell phone is dead. The freeways are rubble. The airport is demolished. Buildings lay across streets like fallen trees. It will be days before help can arrive.Marty has been expecting this day all his life. He's prepared. In his car are a pair of sturdy walking shoes and a backpack of food, water, and supplies. He knows there is only one thing he can do ... that he must do: get home to his wife Beth, go back to their gated community on the far edge of the San Fernando Valley.All he has to do is walk. But he will quickly learn that it's not that easy. His dangerous, unpredictable journey home will take him through the different worlds of what was once Los Angeles. Wildfires rage out of control. Flood waters burst through collapsed dams. Natural gas explosions consume neighborhoods. Sinkholes swallow entire buildings. After-shocks rip apart the ground. Looters rampage through the streets.There's no power. No running water. No order.Marty Slack thinks he's prepared. He's wrong. Nothing can prepare him for this ordeal, a quest for his family and for his soul, a journey that will test the limits of his endurance and his humanity, a trek from the man he was to the man he can be ... if he can survive The Walk.
The Timeweaver's Wager
Axel Blackwell - 2016
Eight years ago, Connie Salvatore was savagely murdered here. Glen has spent his life seeking redemption, haunted by the knowledge that he might have been able save her. The time has come to let go of his past and move on with his life. But as he prepares to do so, an old friend offers Glen the redemption he has always sought – a chance to relive that horrible night and change the past. All he has to do... is die.
Forever Man
Brian W. Matthews - 2013
But when her seventeen-year-old daughter goes missing after a school dance and the mutilated corpse of the girl’s date is discovered in the nearby woods, Izzy’s police skills are stretched to their limits.Her only suspect is a stranger, a mysterious black man with no known past. When a second stranger appears, the investigation stalls. People she once trusted turn against her. The local banker’s autistic son begins to know things no one else does.And now something unspeakable prowls the woods. Joined by three friends and the man she once considered her enemy, Izzy races to find her daughter—and ends up trapped in the middle of a war between an ancient evil and the man who has stood in its way for nearly two thousand years.
Wuftoom
Mary G. Thompson - 2012
. . something utterly new and weird."—Publishers WeeklyEveryone thinks Evan is sick. But Evan knows he is actually transforming. His metamorphosis has him confined to his bed, terrified, and alone—except for visits from the Wuftoom, a wormlike creature that tells Evan he is becoming one of them. Clinging to his humanity and desperate to help his overworked single mother, Evan makes a bargain with the Vitflies, the enemies of the Wuftoom. But when the bargain becomes blackmail and the Vitflies prepare for war, whom can Evan trust? Is saving his humanity worth destroying an entire species, and the only family he has left?