Sweetest Darkness - by Leslie Lutz (Hardcover)

About the Book

When fifteen-year-old clairvoyant Quinn enters the dark halls of an abandoned hotel with his friends, he accidentally unleashes a ruthless entity that threatens to wipe out his small Texas town.

Book Synopsis

A teenage psychic is drawn deep into the honeycomb of an abandoned hotel--and into a cat-and-mouse game with a predatory entity--in this riveting new supernatural horror novel.

"SO SCARY, IT GIVES DARKNESS A BAD NAME! When I finished the last page, I realized I was still shivering."--R.L. STINE, author of Goosebumps and Fear Street

Everyone in Gypsum, Texas knows the Hotel Alvarado changes at night--especially Quinn. A teenage clairvoyant, he's been having dreams about it... dreams that call him to its dark, abandoned halls. The hotel is a monument to the town's more prosperous past, when celebrities flocked to the mineral spas and films were shot in the desert. The Great Depression killed all of that, it killed the Alvarado, and frankly it killed Gypsum, too. Now, when the sun goes down, things no longer living stir deep within its creaking depths.

But the dreams are relentless. When Quinn braves the hotel's darkness with his best friend June and unrequited love Selena, looking for answers, he gets only one: ghosts aren't the scariest thing lurking inside the Alvarado (although they're there, cold and restless and angry).

No. He's been called by something worse: a predatory, inhuman entity that threatens to wipe Gypsum off the map, along with everyone in it. And wrongly--accidentally--he's let it out. It takes the shape of a handsome young man. It walks. It talks. It laughs. It can even make you laugh. But its appetite for death can never be sated.

Quinn has always had the power to see the future... can he find the power to change it?

Named to the Spirit of Texas Reading List

"Mesmeric. Hauntingly beautiful. A must-read for anyone who dares to venture into the abyss."--Robin Alvarez, author of When Oceans Rise

"Spooky. Scary. Mysterious. Twisty."--A. Lee Martinez, award-winning author of A Namless Witch

Review Quotes

"So scary, this book gives darkness a bad name! The evil is alive and the tension grows. When I finished the last page, I realized I was still shivering."-- R.L. Stine, author of Goosebumps and Fear Street

"An imaginative supernatural thriller novel set in a small town you won't soon forget."--Kirkus Reviews

"This novel is at once disturbing and joyous."--Shelf Awareness

"The story weaves in a number of supernatural elements that should appeal to fans of the genre."--School Library Journal

"A good fit for fans of Riverdale and Christopher Pike."--Booklist

"The unexpected heart of this supernatural horror is a monster that has experienced romantic love, has suffered immeasurably, and has spent its entire life desperate to not be itself so that it will not be loathed, feared, abandoned, or trapped."--The Bulletin

"Sweetest Darkness will have you looking over your shoulder and peering down dark hallways as you discover the secrets of the Hotel Alvarado right along with Quinn. It's a creepy, atmospheric, unpredictable journey deep into the heart of what scares us most."--Ginny Myers Sain, New York Times bestselling author of Dark and Shallow Lies and One Last Breath

"Mesmeric. Hauntingly beautiful. A must-read for anyone who dares to venture into the abyss."--Robin Alvarez, author of When Oceans Rise

"Spooky. Scary. Mysterious. Twisty."--A. Lee Martinez, award-winning author of A Namless Witch

About the Author

Leslie Lutz is the author of Sweetest Darkness, a YA horror novel about small towns, cosmic danger, and ravenous spirits, which was named to the Spirit of Texas Reading List and which R.L Stein described as "So scary, it gives darkness a bad name." Her first book, Fractured Tide, was a Suspense Magazine Best Book of the Year and a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection. She lives in the Pacific Northwest, and when she's not writing, you can find her watching B-movies, scuba diving, or taking care of chickens.