Creed

by Trisha Leaver, Lindsay Currie

Overview

When their car breaks down in the middle of nowhere, Dee, her boyfriend Luke, and Luke's brother, Mike, seek help in the nearby town of Purity Springs. But as they walk the vacant streets, the teens make some disturbing discoveries. The seemingly deserted homes each contain a sinister book with violent instructions on disciplining children. The graveyard is full of unmarked crosses. Worst of all, there's no way to contact the outside world. When Purity Springs' inhabitants suddenly appear, Dee, Luke, and Mike find themselves at the mercy of Elijah Hawkins, the town's charismatic leader who has his own plans for the three of them. Their only hope for survival is Elijah's enigmatic son, Joseph. And his game may be just as deadly as his father's . . .

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780738741871
Publisher:	North Star Editions
Publication date:	11/08/2014
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	264
Sales rank:	1,006,788
File size:	3 MB
Age Range:	14 - 18 Years

About the Author

Trisha Leaver (Cape Cod, MA) is a freelance editor and member of SCBWI. She graduated from the University of Vermont with a degree in Social Work, which she used in the social service field as a child advocate.

Lindsay Currie (Chicago, IL) graduated from Knox College and is a member of SCBWI, The American Horror Writers Association, The YA Scream Queens, and OneFourKidLit, a community of authors with debuts in 2014.

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Editorial Reviews

10/06/2014
Debut authors Leaver and Currie make an auspicious foray into YA horror. Seventeen-year-old Dee’s plan to surprise her boyfriend, Luke, on their second anniversary goes horribly wrong. Their upstate New York getaway takes a nightmarish turn when they run out of gas and must walk to the eerily deserted town of Purity Springs, where, naturally, there’s no cell-phone reception. Along with Luke’s younger brother, they explore the town and are eventually confronted by a boy named Joseph, the son of a local cult leader, who needs their help to free his younger sister so they can escape the isolated town together. After Elijah isolates Dee from the boys and reveals his intentions to make her his wife, Dee must decide how far she will go to save others from torture and death. The authors create a believably desperate and terrifying situation for their characters, and Dee’s history of physical and sexual abuse adds another layer of terror to this suspenseful and sporadically gory thriller. Ages 12–up. Agent: (for Leaver) Kevan Lyon, Marsal Lyon Literary Agency; (for Currie) Kathleen Rushall, Marsal Lyon Literary Agency. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

"A straight-ahead, cover-your-ears tale of terror that grows more nihilistic and grueling by the page." —Booklist

"A suspenseful and sporadically gory thriller." —Publishers Weekly

"A dark, distrubing story ... [Creed] pulls no punches. A fine choice for a teens who crave horror." —School Library Journal

From the Publisher

02/01/2015
Gr 9 Up—A dark, disturbing story that will appeal to teens on the cusp of reading Stephen King. Seventeen-year-old Dee, for many years an abused child, has lived in countless foster homes before finally settling in with a loving older couple. As a surprise for her boyfriend Luke, Dee arranges a fun night to attend a concert several towns over. She has enlisted Luke's younger brother Mike to aid in lying to their parents about their whereabouts. Things progress smoothly and the trio sets off on the trip, but tension builds quickly when the teens forget to get gas. They eventually end up stranded in a desolate, snow-covered landscape with no cell phone service. The characters come across a tiny, eerily silent, and deserted settlement. They fruitlessly search for gas and eventually break into an isolated cemetery shed where they discover mysterious papers. Mike also finds a sign denoting the name of the town as Purity Springs. Trapped, the protagonists make the fatal choice of looking for help in one of the homes along the street. The houses are identical and all contain a bizarre manual entitled "Fashioning Children in the Image of God." For Dee, the volume hits too close to home as it describes punishing children through beatings. Action progresses quickly as the town's dark secrets are revealed. This book pulls no punches: There is swearing, sexual references, violence, underage drinking, and drug use. The characters' relationships, such as Dee and Luke's romance and Luke and Mike's sibling affection, are fleshed out fairly well. VERDICT A fine choice for teens who crave horror.—Julie Shatterly, W. A. Bess Elementary School, Gastonia, NC

School Library Journal

2014-08-20
Three teens become trapped by a terrifying cult when they stumble into a strange town after breaking down in a remote area. Seventeen-year-old Dee, her boyfriend, Luke, and his brother, Mike, on their way to a concert, take a back road to save time and run out of gas. They hike to the nearest town but find it apparently deserted, with a siren sounding. The cemetery has only wooden crosses to mark graves, and all the houses and gardens look identical. They enter an empty house and shelter there from a sudden snowstorm. There, as in all the other houses, the only decorations are giant crosses on the walls. The next day, they meet Joseph, a boy their age who confirms that the town is controlled by his father, the cult's leader, and who promises to help them. But his madman father, Elijah, discovers them, natch. Dee, eventually separated from Luke and Mike, must try to find the others and escape, with Elijah constantly threatening murder unless Dee complies with his wishes. Leaver and Currie set the scene effectively if not particularly originally and keep tension high. The cult never really seems credible, though, and Elijah's villainy is thoroughly over-the-top. Nevertheless, readers who don't probe hard should find Dee a sympathetic companion for the duration. Undemanding suspense. (Thriller. 14-18)

Kirkus Reviews