Dead Set: A Novel

by Richard Kadrey

Overview

The New York Times bestselling author of the Sandman Slim series delivers a wonderful stand-alone dark fantasy in which a young girl is caught between the worlds of the living and the dead.

After her father's funeral, Zoe moved to the big city with her mother to start over. But change always brings trials, and life in the city is not so easy. Money is tight, and Zoe's only escape, as has always been the case, is in her dreams—a world apart from her troubled real life where she can spend time with her closest companion: her lost brother, Valentine.

But something or someone has entered their dreamworld uninvited. And a chance encounter at a used record store, where the vinyl holds not music but lost souls, has opened up a portal to the world of the restless dead. It's here that the shop's strange proprietor offers Zoe the chance to commune with her dead father. The price? A lock of hair. Then a tooth. Then . . .

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062339287
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	10/14/2014
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.10(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Richard Kadrey is the New York Times bestselling author of the Sandman Slim supernatural noir books. Sandman Slim was included in Amazon’s “100 Science Fiction & Fantasy Books to Read in a Lifetime,” and is in development as a feature film. Some of his other books include The Wrong Dead Guy, The Everything Box, Metrophage, and Butcher Bird. He also writes the Vertigo comic Lucifer.

Editorial Reviews

A dark and eerie world, a razor sharp plot, and a heroine worth rooting for make DEAD SET unforgettable.” — Kami Garcia

“If punk and underworld mythology got into the mosh pit, it would come out something like this book; spiky and pretty with lashings of black eyeliner and its heart tattooed on its sleeve.” — Lauren Beukes

“A fantastic supernatural horror novel with deep punk roots ... Kadrey’s underworld is a gloomy mirror of the overworld with all its injustice and broken dreams, and Zoe’s battle with her fear and her honorable spirit put her in enough jeopardy for six novels. — Cory Doctorow, Boing Boing

“Kadrey again has painted a world that draws you in with its mysterious, yet frightening, beauty…The imagery is just phenomenal.” — Crimespree Magazine

“An intelligent stand-alone tale of quiet horror that should appeal to Kadrey’s many fans, as well as to lovers of more subtle shivers.” — Library Journal

“This bittersweet and elegaic fantasy will appeal to both fantasy fans and mainstream readers.” — Publishers Weekly

“A tender, if terrifying, story of a lost teenager trying to find her way.” — Los Angeles Times

From the Publisher

A tender, if terrifying, story of a lost teenager trying to find her way.

|Los Angeles Times

A fantastic supernatural horror novel with deep punk roots ... Kadrey’s underworld is a gloomy mirror of the overworld with all its injustice and broken dreams, and Zoe’s battle with her fear and her honorable spirit put her in enough jeopardy for six novels.

Cory Doctorow

If punk and underworld mythology got into the mosh pit, it would come out something like this book; spiky and pretty with lashings of black eyeliner and its heart tattooed on its sleeve.

Lauren Beukes

Kadrey again has painted a world that draws you in with its mysterious, yet frightening, beauty…The imagery is just phenomenal.

Crimespree Magazine

A dark and eerie world, a razor sharp plot, and a heroine worth rooting for make DEAD SET unforgettable.

Kami Garcia

A tender, if terrifying, story of a lost teenager trying to find her way.

Los Angeles Times

Known for writing quirky supernatural-themed books, Kadrey's latest offering doesn't stray far from the formula cherished by his readers. Zoe's having a bad time: Her father died and left the teen and her mom almost destitute. They've moved into a fourth-floor walk-up in a sketchy neighborhood, Mom's trying to get back into the job market after many years, and Zoe isn't crazy about her new high school, where the only person with whom she's made friends is a girl who calls herself Absynthe. Then Zoe wanders into a store selling rare old vinyl records. Her parents were heavily involved in the early punk music scene, and she's grown up with a huge library of LPs, but this store has something besides ordinary music in it. Zoe stumbles upon a room that holds some odd-looking records and a weird machine that the creepy and strange looking proprietor says can help her connect with her dead father. When Zoe opts in, she finds that the proprietor demands an odd sort of payment each time she visits: He instructs her to bring parts of herself ranging from a lock of hair to a tooth to blood. And while that gives her pause, she also finds that the peculiar dreams she has always had are not what they seem, and the long road to finding her dead father leads to a nightmarish place where bad things happen. While the tale's both well-crafted and imaginative, it's not going to be every reader's cup of tea, although fans of zombie novels may find the author's take on the dead unique. Zoe and her family present themselves as sympathetic and interesting, but the storyline is unsettling, and the ending seems both rushed and tacked on, like the author ran out of steam in the final third of the book and just decided to get it over with. The writing is top-notch, but for many, the book will prove an acquired taste.

Kirkus Reviews