Children of Chicago

by Cynthia Pelayo

Overview

From a Bram Stoker Award-winning author, this horrifying retelling of the Pied Piper fairytale set in present-day Chicago is an edge of your seat thrill ride. ‪

When Detective Lauren Medina sees the calling card at a murder scene in Chicago’s Humboldt Park neighborhood, she knows the Pied Piper has returned. When another teenager is brutally murdered at the same lagoon where her sister’s body was found floating years before, she is certain that the Pied Piper is not just back, he’s looking for payment he’s owed from her.

Lauren’s torn between protecting the city she has sworn to keep safe, and keeping a promise she made long ago with her sister’s murderer. She may have to ruin her life by exposing her secrets and lies to stop the Pied Piper before he collects.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781454961512
Publisher:	Union Square & Co.
Publication date:	10/21/2025
Series:	Chicago Saga Series
Edition description:	Reissue
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.10(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Cynthia Pelayo is a Bram Stoker Award winning and International Latino Book Award winning author and poet. She writes fairy tales that blend genre and explore concepts of grief, mourning, and cycles of violence. She is the author of Loteria, Santa Muerte, The Missing, Poems of My Night, Into the Forest and All the Way Through, Children of Chicago, Crime Scene, The Shoemaker’s Magician, as well as dozens of standalone short stories and poems.
 

Editorial Reviews

Pelayo masterfully ratchets up the tension and the scares.” –Publishers Weekly (Starred)

“With superior worldbuilding, a relentless pace, a complex heroine, and a harrowing story that preys off of current events as much as its well-developed monster, this is a stellar horror novel that fires on all cylinders, from the first page through to its horrible conclusion. For fans of dark fantasy based on fairy tales such as Seanan McGuire’s “Wayward Children” series or novels by Helen Oyeyemi, with just the right touch of Sara Paretsky’s V.I. Warshawski.” –Library Journal (Starred)

“”Pelayo has crafted a love story to Chicago, particularly the Latinx community, weaving history, culture, and landmarks into the fabric of the story until the city practically breathes. It is also a love story to fairy tales, and Pelayo intersperses retellings throughout the book, examining the structure, meaning, and value of the original tales. Pelayo’s dark, reimagined fairy tale will have readers leaving their lights on long after they’ve turned the last page.” –Booklist

“Part police procedural, all horror, Cynthia Pelayo’s CHILDREN OF CHICAGO is an immensely entertaining and thoroughly chilling novel, which just so happens to combine two of my favorite things: Chicago and fairytales. I challenge you not to have a good time with Pelayo’s book. The confidence and style on display here say she’s destined to become one of the greats.”―Kealan Patrick Burke, Bram Stoker Award-Winning author of Sour Candy, Kin, and The Turtle Boy

From the Publisher