Shiny Happy People - by Clay McLeod Chapman (Hardcover)

About the Book

Sixteen-year-old Kyra teams up with new boy Logan to uncover the truth behind a mysterious drug with disturbing side effects that is plaguing their town.

Book Synopsis

A gripping, genre-bending novel about a mysterious new drug plaguing a small town and one girl who must uncover the terrifying truth behind the haunting side effects--or she will be next.

At sixteen, Kyra is still haunted by the horrors she saw growing up with her drug-addicted mother. She doesn't feel like she belongs anywhere--and disturbing dreams come to her at night.

When a new party drug makes its way to her high school, Kyra's life becomes an actual nightmare. A video challenge spreads among the students--and though she doesn't participate, Kyra can't escape the inexplicable side effects.

Everyone around her seems to be mysteriously changing, including the people she loves the most. Her brother has a new personality overnight. Her best friend suddenly feels like a stranger. The only other person who seems to notice the eeriness is Logan, the new boy at school. Like Kyra, he has steered clear of the party scene.

When the strangeness begins to feel sinister--or unnatural--Kyra is determined to find out exactly what is behind the mysterious drug. As she and Logan get closer to the truth, the line between Kyra's past and present blurs . . . and she will need to face the terrors inside herself, or lose everyone she loves.

"Clay McLeod Chapman is one of my favorite horror storytellers working today."--Jordan Peele

"The most ambitious novel yet from a writer quietly redefining the emotional contours of contemporary horror."--Vulture on Wake Up and Open Your Eyes

Review Quotes

"As creepy as a vine that wraps around you and refuses to let go. Shiny Happy People is a wild ride through the uncanny valley." --Goldy Moldavsky, New York Times bestselling author of The Mary Shelley Club

"In his chilling YA debut, Chapman (Wake Up and Open Your Eyes, for adults) blends harrowing psychological terror with visceral body horror to deliver a nightmare steeped in paranoid ambiance. Claustrophobic prose interspersed with haunting dream sequences touch on themes of addiction, conformity, family abandonment, and trauma."--Publishers Weekly

About the Author

Clay McLeod Chapman writes novels, comic books, and children's books, as well as for film and TV. He is the author of many adult horror novels, including The Remaking, Whisper Down the Lane, Ghost Eaters, What Kind of Mother, Wake Up and Open Your Eyes, and Acquired Taste. Shiny Happy People is his debut book for young readers.