Hampton Heights - by Dan Kois (Paperback)

About the Book

"On a cold winter's evening in 1987, six middle-school paperboys wander an unfamiliar Milwaukee neighborhood, selling newspaper subscriptions, fueled by their stupid manager Kevin's promises of cash bonuses and dinner at Burger King. But the freaks come out at night in Hampton Heights. Sent out into the neighborhood in pairs, the boys will encounter a host of primordial monsters--and triumph over them. Sigmone, who is bussed to a white school, is stuck with Joel, a white kid who idolizes Black culture. Mark, who's wrestling with his sexuality, joins his secret crush, Ryan -- who has a crush of his own. Nishu and Al are outsiders; one is a second-generation immigrant, the other a poor kid in a rich school. Over the course of one eventful evening, the three pairs will encounter the wild things of Hampton Heights--werewolves, witches with a centuries-old story to tell, and a creepy, ancient monster who feeds on memories. Meanwhile, Kevin is having an adventure of his own, seducing a beautiful woman in the neighborhood's tavern -- but there's something weird about her fingernails... Funny, thrilling, outrageous, and sneakily beautiful, Dan Kois's 'Hampton Heights' captures without sentimentality the dreams and fears of teenage boys in a tender horror-comedy about camaraderie, bravery, vulnerability, and the terrifying prospect of growing up"--

Book Synopsis

"Splendid . . . what really sells this imaginative, scary, verge-of-growing-up tale is its characters, each with a distinct voice and personality. . . . Kois' surprising second novel is a natural for fans of the character-based horror fiction of Grady Hendrix or Paul Tremblay and will win him a whole new sphere of readers." --Booklist

"Marvelous, tender, and unpredictable, Hampton Heights captures the uncanniness and discomfort of early adolescence. There's a pinch of Ray Bradbury, a soupçon of Stephen King, a dash of fairy tale logic, but Dan Kois makes something entirely his own out of this familiar and always pleasurable territory."--Kelly Link, author of The Book of Love

"Like Stand by Me mixed with Stranger Things and The Twilight Zone, Hampton Heights is a rollicking chronicle of youth set loose among mystery and monsters. Dan Kois deftly conjures a boundless world that's chilling, wondrous, and delightful."--Adam Sternbergh, author of The Eden Test

From the author of the Washington Post notable novel Vintage Contemporaries, something completely unexpected: a hair-raising and rollicking adventure set on one night in 1987, when six paperboys must confront a slew of monsters as well as their own personal demons in a haunted Midwestern neighborhood.

On a cold winter's evening in 1987, six middle-school paperboys wander an unfamiliar Milwaukee neighborhood, selling newspaper subscriptions, fueled by their manager Kevin's promises of cash bonuses and dinner at Burger King. But the freaks come out at night in Hampton Heights. Sent out into the neighborhood in pairs, the boys will encounter a host of primordial monsters--and triumph over them.

Sigmone, who is bussed to a white school, is stuck with Joel, a white kid who idolizes Black culture. Mark, who's wrestling with his sexuality, joins his secret crush, Ryan. Nishu and Al are outsiders; one is a second-generation immigrant, the other a poor kid in a rich school. Over the course of one eventful evening, the three pairs will encounter the wild things of Hampton Heights--werewolves, witches with a centuries-old story to tell, and a creepy, ancient monster who feeds on memories. Meanwhile, Kevin is having an adventure of his own, seducing a beautiful woman in the neighborhood's tavern . . . but who is actually in control?

Funny, thrilling, outrageous, and sneakily beautiful, Dan Kois's Hampton Heights captures without sentimentality the dreams and fears of teenage boys in a tender horror-comedy about camaraderie, bravery, vulnerability, and the terrifying prospect of growing up.

Review Quotes

"The joy of this book is in Kois's warm, thoughtful depictions of the boys and the neighborhood. . . . There's magic to be found everywhere, the book seems to say, especially where you least expect it." - New York Times
"Highly entertaining . . . . Hampton Heights is a definite pleasure." - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
"Entertaining, touching, and funnier than I expected, this short novel about a group of kids spending a night trying to sell newspaper subscriptions in a haunted neighborhood takes some beloved horror tropes - witches, werewolves, trolls - and makes them feel fresh. .... Surprisingly tender but also full of childish scatological humor, Hampton Heights is a love letter to horror and growing from an author who clearly loves the genre."
- Locus Magazine
"This betamax beaut of a book blends the best of Bradbury with a Spielbergian lens flare, taking on the terrors found in folklore and letting them rummage through the suburbs. There are most definitely stranger things to be uncovered in Milwaukee, and thank goodness Kois chronicles them all." - Clay McLeod Chapman, author of What Kind of Mother and Ghost Eaters
"A dark fairy tale with blood in its teeth, a vintage Iron Maiden T-shirt on its hairy back, and a big, beating heart." - Grady Hendrix, New York Times bestselling author of The Final Girl Support Group and How to Sell a Haunted House
"Written with verve, insight, heart (but not an indiscriminate one), and wit, Dan Kois's Hampton Heights is the wild reimagining of the coming-of-age novel I didn't know I needed right now." - Paul Tremblay, bestselling author of The Cabin at the End of the World and Horror Movie: A Novel, on Hampton Heights
"Delightfully immature and authentic dialogue, a refreshing lack of cynicism, and some genuinely unnerving threats all help elevate an engaging and eerie adventure-." - Kirkus Reviews
"Splendid . . . what really sells this imaginative, scary, verge-of-growing-up tale is its characters, each with a distinct voice and personality. . . . Kois' surprising second novel is a natural for fans of the character-based horror fiction of Grady Hendrix or Paul Tremblay and will win him a whole new sphere of readers." - Booklist
"Kois has created a fun little tale in Hampton Heights that has a great nostalgia feel of kids being kids and going on adventures, but at times crossing over into the dark and scary. Strong individual characters help carry the story along to a satisfying conclusion." - Manhattan Review of Books
"Smart, sharp and with a twist of inside publishing, this novel is a gem." - Zibby Owens, Good Morning America, on Vintage Contemporaries
"Vintage Contemporaries is about many things--art, friendship, youth, desire, a very particular slice of New York City--but what makes this masterful debut sing is Dan Kois's dazzling excavation of the human heart and all its contradictions, mystery, and beauty. Smart, laugh-out-loud funny and consistently surprising, this novel is a gem." - Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney, New York Times bestselling author of The Nest and Good Company, on Vintage Contemporaries
"A delightful, funny novel that asks the question, Is writing about happiness an important thing to do?--while doing exactly that, so beautifully and convincingly that it's like a magic trick." - Maile Meloy, author of Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It and Do Not Become Alarmed, on Vintage Contemporaries
"Marvelous, tender, and unpredictable, Hampton Heights captures the uncanniness and discomfort of early adolescence. There's a pinch of Ray Bradbury, a soupçon of Stephen King, a dash of fairy tale logic, but Dan Kois makes something entirely his own out of this familiar and always pleasurable territory." - Kelly Link, author of White Cat, Black Dog
"Like Stand by Me mixed with Stranger Things and The Twilight Zone, Hampton Heights is a rollicking chronicle of youth set loose among mystery and monsters. Dan Kois deftly conjures a boundless world that's chilling, wondrous, and delightful." - Adam Sternbergh, author of The Eden Test, on Hampton Heights