Hemlock Grove: A Novel

by Brian McGreevy

Overview

An exhilarating reinvention of the gothic novel, inspired by the iconic characters of our greatest myths and nightmares. Now a hit television series on Netflix.

The body of a young girl is found mangled and murdered in the woods of Hemlock Grove, Pennsylvania, in the shadow of the abandoned Godfrey Steel mill. A manhunt ensues—though the authorities aren't sure if it's a man they should be looking for.

Some suspect an escapee from the White Tower, a foreboding biotech facility owned by the Godfrey family—their personal fortune and the local economy having moved on from Pittsburgh steel—where, if rumors are true, biological experiments of the most unethical kind take place. Others turn to Peter Rumancek, a Gypsy trailer-trash kid who has told impressionable high school classmates that he's a werewolf. Or perhaps it's Roman, the son of the late JR Godfrey, who rules the adolescent social scene with the casual arrogance of a cold-blooded aristocrat, his superior status unquestioned despite his decidedly freakish sister, Shelley, whose monstrous medical conditions belie a sweet intelligence, and his otherworldly control freak of a mother, Olivia.

At once a riveting mystery and a fascinating revelation of the grotesque and the darkness in us all, Hemlock Grove has the architecture and energy to become a classic in its own right—and Brian McGreevy the talent and ambition to enthrall us for years to come.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780374534462
Publisher:	Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication date:	04/16/2013
Edition description:	Media tie-in, Movie Tie-In
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	107,324
Product dimensions:	5.22(w) x 7.36(h) x 0.91(d)

About the Author

Brian McGreevy grew up near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and received his MFA from the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas. Now a screenwriter who has had two screenplays featured on the best of the year Black List, he is working on an adaptation of Dracula for Leonardo DiCaprio's production company. He lives in Los Angeles.

Read an Excerpt

Hemlock Grove [movie tie-in edition]

A Novel

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By Brian McGreevy

FSG Originals

Copyright © 2013 Brian McGreevy
All right reserved.
ISBN: 9780374534462

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Something Happened
 
 
The lone wolf howls to rejoin the pack from which he is separated. But why does the pack howl when no wolf is lost?
Isn’t it obvious?
Because there is no other way to say it.
*   *   *
The night after the Harvest Moon, the body was discovered. It was nearing October and the sun was still hot, but the leaves were falling now with intention and every night was colder. Peter was walking home from the bus stop when he saw the flashing light of a fire truck up at Kilderry Park. He wondered if there had been an accident. Peter, who was seventeen at the time of which I’m writing, liked accidents: modern times were just so fucking structured. He saw in addition to the fire truck a few cop cars and an ambulance, but no signs of wreckage. He turned his head in passing, but there was nothing more to see beyond the norm. Two of the cops combing the area by the swings he knew; they’d hassled him a couple of times in that kind of obligatory cop way that, in Peter’s experience, every uniform was an SS uniform. Probably some junkie had OD’d or something. There was that bum who hung out around here, an old black guy with yellow and black teeth and one dead eye that looked like a dirty marble who might not have been old, really. Peter had given him a light once, but no change. Better that paid for his own drugs. His interest flagged. Old black junkie kicks it it’s no more news than chance of rain tomorrow. Then he heard it, one sentence. No sign of a weapon, Sheriff. Peter looked again but there was no more to see than a milling cluster of uniforms by the tree line and he put his hands in his pockets and went on.
He had a bad feeling.
Nicolae had always told him that he had been born with an unusually receptive Swadisthana chakra and that underneath the surfaces of things, the illusion of the illusion, there is a secret, sacred frequency of the universe and that the Swadisthana was the channel through which it would sing to you. And the Swadisthana being located of course just behind the balls, he should always always trust his balls. Peter did not know what it was, but something about the scene in Kilderry Park had his balls in a state of agitation.
When he got home he told his mother, “Something happened.”
“Hmm?” she said. She was smoking a joint and watching a quiz show. The trailer was warm and smelled sweet, pot and baked apple. “Hummingbird!” she yelled suddenly, in response to the question What is the only bird that can fly backwards.
He told her what he saw. He told her he had a bad feeling.
“Why?” she said.
“I don’t know, I just do,” he said.
She was thoughtful. “Well, there’s cobbler,” she said.
He went to the kitchen. She asked if he’d been in town.
“Yeah,” he said.
She emptied his backpack of items so small and modest it could hardly be considered stealing while Peter scraped the tar of sugar at the edge of the cobbler and tried to shake this feeling. The feeling that whatever had happened in Kilderry Park was no good. And not in some greater existential sense but no good with his number on it. There was a coffee mug on the counter with the comic strip character Cathy on it and a small chip the shape of a shark’s tooth that held loose change. He dipped his hand in the mug and went to the door and scattered a handful of coins on the stone path out front.
“Why did you do that?” said Lynda.
Peter shrugged. He had done it because he wanted to hear something dissonant and beautiful.
“You are one strange customer, you know that?” said Lynda.
“Yeah,” said Peter.


 
Copyright © 2012 by Brian McGreevy


Continues...

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Excerpted from Hemlock Grove [movie tie-in edition] by Brian McGreevy Copyright © 2013 by Brian McGreevy. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Reading Group Guide

Hemlock Grove, Pennsylvania, is a small town with a big secret. When a teenage girl is found mangled and murdered in the woods, two teenagers set out on a quest to find out who—or what—committed the crime.

Peter Rumancek is a Gypsy boy, new to the town and therefore a likely suspect. It doesn't help that his classmates suspect he's a werewolf. Roman Godfrey is the too-cool son of the town's wealthiest family. This unlikely pair team up to solve the mystery before one of them is falsely accused, with the help of Letha, Roman's beautiful cousin, pregnant under mysterious circumstances.

Set against the backdrop of the White Tower, formerly the Godfrey steel mill and now a biotech facility potentially engaging in questionable experiments, Hemlock Grove puts a modern twist on the traditional tale of good versus evil, raising the question of where exactly the line between the two lies.

We hope that the following topics will enhance your reading group's discussion.

1. Hemlock Grove begins with the following quote: "The lone wolf howls to rejoin the pack from which he is separated. But why does the pack howl when no wolf is lost? Isn't it obvious? Because there is no other way to say it." How does this set the tone for the novel?

2. Early in the novel, Christina Wendall asks Peter if he's a werewolf, and he matter-of-factly tells her that it's true. Do you think he wants her to believe that he is or that he isn't? Why does he handle her question this way?

3. Peter thinks that "pain was as much a part of this life as the summer and the winter and the rain, and there was no greater asshole than the one who believed you can cure it. That you ought to" (page 65). Do you agree with this sentiment? Peter considers himself a realist, not a defeatist. What do you think of his self-assessment?

4. Throughout Hemlock Grove, Brian McGreevy uses language to create vivid, humorous images, such as: "Every time she used his name it was putting a pat of butter on a slice of botulism" (page 68) or "It is not so much that Letha revised her opinion as that the bottom of her heart fell open and swung slowly back and forth on its hinge" (page 86). How did these images help you picture the story in your head? What are some other lines that jumped out at you?

5. While the other characters' oddities or differences are guessed at but not known for sure by the people of Hemlock Grove, Shelley's are external, visible to everyone. Why do you think the author made her physically so different from everyone around her? What does she represent?

6. Christina is getting ready for her first date, with the help of the twins Alexa and Alyssa Sworn. "She had not been conferred with a practical sense of how one went about this strange and all inverted business of being a girl, where seemingly natural stuff like going on about all the great things you just learned about Siberian tigers on National Geographic was suddenly weird, but totally weird stuff in and of itself like drawing around your eyeball with a pencil became normal" (page 156). In what other ways are the teenage characters in Hemlock Grove coming of age, learning about themselves as they attempt to solve the mystery?

7. When he's alone, Dr. Pryce speaks out loud, pretending to be dictating his memoir. What does this tell you about his character and his motivation?

8. Peter's biggest fear is "the cage." What is the cage? What does it represent to him?

9. Dr. Chasseur thinks of Roman as "a narcissistic, insecure, oversensitive, and underparented adolescent heir to a Fortune 500 company with a substance abuse problem and homoerotic tendencies" (page 193). Do you think this description of Roman is apt? Is it overly harsh? How would you describe him? How would you describe Peter?

10. Although most of the novel is told from the point of view of the narrator, we learn more about some of the characters, particularly Shelley and Norman Godfrey, through their exchange of letters. What did you think of this device? Did it enhance your reading experience?

11. Letha embraces her pregnancy calmly, seemingly with complete acceptance. At more than one point in the novel, those closest to her suspect that she's going crazy. What did you think of her reaction to her predicament? Did you suspect she was insane?

12. Even as the characters are fighting for their lives, Brian McGreevy shows moments of normalcy amidst the chaos: first dates, kids going to school, people falling in and out of love. For the most part, do you think the characters were more human or monster?

13. Dr. Godfrey hates the family business and what it stands for. Why doesn't he walk away from it? Why does he feel so tied to it?

14. Peter says that "however different from the rest of the world Roman felt, he was still rich and so tolerably different" (page 184). How do issues of class and wealth play into Hemlock Grove?

15. Throughout the novel, Peter relies on his Swadisthana chakra, or instincts, when it comes time to make decisions. Do you think this practice works for him? You may want to bring an illustration of the chakras and where on the body they're located to your book club.

16. Peter occasionally mentions his Roma heritage in Hemlock Grove. What do we learn about the culture from what he says? What part do you think it has played in making him the person he is?

17. The overarching struggle in Hemlock Grove is between good and evil. Ultimately, what side of that divide do you believe Roman falls on?

18. We get to see the strengths and weaknesses of each of the characters in Hemlock Grove and get a glimpse into each of their inner lives. Which character did you like best? Who were you most drawn to? Who would you like to learn more about?

19. Hemlock Grove has been described as a gothic novel. Bring the movie adaptation of another famous gothic novel, such as Dracula or Frankenstein, to your book club and watch a clip from it. How are the two works similar and different?

Editorial Reviews

It takes a rare stroke of genius to reconfigure the gothic novel within the postindustrial barrens of steel country, and another entirely to upstage this conceit with a mythic and ambitious story of adolescence and alienation. Like a collaboration between Edgar Allan Poe and J. D. Salinger, this is a real emerging talent.” —Philipp Meyer, author of American Rust

“A wonderfully creative and twisted reinvention of classic monster archetypes, wrapped up in a mysterious thriller. I loved it. Brian McGreevy is a welcome new voice in horror literature, but be warned: it's not for the faint of heart, or stomach.” —Eli Roth, director of Hostel

“This is . . . horror with a respect for its literary antecedents.” —Yvonne Zipp, The Washington Post

From the Publisher

In screenwriter McGreevy’s smartly constructed debut novel, a former mill town is swept with fear when the corpse of a local teen is discovered. The crime scene lacks the usual clues, though the wounds point to an unidentifiable animal. At Hemlock Grove High School, eyes immediately turn to Peter Rumancek, a new senior rumored to be a werewolf. Peter is grudgingly persuaded by Roman Godfrey—heir to an old family fortune whose assets lie in the Godfrey Institute for Biomedical Technologies—to find the real killer. Meanwhile, Roman must deal with his bizarre family—his cousin, Letha, who insists she was impregnated by an angel; his younger sister, Shelley, whose preternatural intelligence is housed in a grotesque body; and his mother, Olivia, an icy beauty with a tendency to faint. Propelled by the clockwork appearance of bodies, Roman and Peter follow a trail of clues that lead them to dig up a victim’s grave and to a mysterious project headed by slick genius Dr. Pryce at the Godfrey Institute. Not only does their investigation reveal the killer, it also uncovers many Godfrey family secrets in the process. McGreevy cleverly contemporizes the gothic novel, underlining the isolations of modern-day technology and adolescence in this engaging, though occasionally affected, literary horror novel. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

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