A Misfortune of Lake Monsters - by Nicole M Wolverton (Paperback)

About the Book

Short Summary: An ambitious teen girl is forced to continue her family's legacy of secretly impersonating the town's famous lake monster, but suddenly finds a real monster in the lake who wants to eat its way through the populace.

Book Synopsis

When legends bite back.

Lemon Ziegler wants to escape rural Devil's Elbow, Pennsylvania to attend college--but that's impossible now that she's expected to impersonate the town's lake monster for the rest of her life. Her family has been secretly keeping the tradition of Old Lucy, the famed (and very fake) monster of Lake Lokakoma, alive for generations, all to keep the tourists coming. Without Lemon, the town dies, and she can't disappoint her grandparents . . . or tell her best friends about any of it. That includes Troy Ramirez, who has been covertly in love with Lemon for years, afraid to ruin their friendship by confessing his feelings. When a very real, and very hungry monster is discovered in the lake, secrets must fall by the wayside. Determined to stop the monster, Lemon and her best friends are the only thing standing between Devil's Elbow and the monster out for blood.

For readers who enjoy Harrow Lake by Kat Ellis, House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland, Dark and Shallow Lies by Ginny Myers Sain, and The Lake House by Sarah Beth Durst.

Review Quotes

"High stakes and an endearing romance rocket the thriller A Misfortune of Lake Monsters to mythical heights." --Foreword Reviews

"I unequivocally believe in lake monsters after reading Wolverton's charming, funny and honestly very touching work. A great achievement that delivers on the promise of monster-y fun." --Robert P. Ottone, author of The Vile Thing We Created and the Bram Stoker Award-winning novel The Triangle

"Nicole M. Wolverton confronts her lovable characters with that particular, skincrawly species of fear that comes with remembering what it's like to be hunted. Add a dash of Stranger Things shenanigans and you get a fun and absorbing read about friendship, family, and cryptids. Devil's Elbow is a great place to spend your day." --Amelinda Bérubé, author of The Dark Beneath the Ice and the Bram Stoker Award finalist Here There Are Monsters

"Nicole M. Wolverton delivers a wild, creepy, and thoroughly exhilarating creation with A Misfortune of Lake Monsters! This is everything you'd ever want in a monster story!" --Jonathan Maberry, NY Times bestselling author of Rot & Ruin and Long Past Midnight

"This unnerving journey into the safeguarded secrets and deep depths of a small town called Devil's Elbow is a frightful delight. Nicole Wolverton reveals a fearless imagination and a playful appreciation of the terrifying in her pulse-pounding debut." --Nova Ren Suma, New York Times bestselling author of The Walls Around Us

"With a bone-chilling monster, witty banter, cinematic action, and a swoony romance, A Misfortune of Lake Monsters channels T. Kingfisher for a YA audience. A debut not to be missed!" --Gretchen McNeil, author of #murdertrending, Ten, and Get Even

"With the sweetest love story set against the background of legacy, legend, and just how far you will go to protect it all, the atmospheric mystery in Nicole M. Wolverton's A Misfortune of Lake Monsters takes you on a race against time, and a monster that has no fear. You'll want to dive right into this deliciously dark and twisty, monster of a horror-mystery!" --Keely Parrack, author of the young adult thrillers Don't Let In the Cold and 10 Hours To Go

About the Author

Nicole M. Wolverton is the author of the adult psychological thriller The Trajectory of Dreams (2013) and served as the editor of Bodies Full of Burning (2021), an anthology of short horror fiction through the lens of menopause. She is a Pushcart Prize-nominated writer of short stories and writes creative nonfiction and essays as well. Her work has been published in over forty anthologies, magazines, and podcasts.