“With his debut novella, Jones hits the ground running with a gut-wrenching and haunting supernatural tale of grief and addiction.”
Zack Ayers is an addict.
He is suffering from the same addiction that killed his father.
Grief and dependency make for terrible bedfellows, a downward spiral of despair.
Then Zach finds a strange bicycle that takes him on the darkest ride of his life.
Why we’re excited about this book:
Relatively new to the scene, Tyler Jones has made a big splash in horror with stories in the anthologies Burnt Tongues (edited by Chuck Palahniuk), One Thing Was Certain, and 100 Proof Horror, with short stories published in Dark Moon Digest, LitReactor, No Sleep Podcast, Coffin Bells, and Cemetery Dance, with several stories optioned for film. With his debut novella, Jones hits the ground running with a gut-wrenching and haunting supernatural tale of grief and addiction. Richard Thomas (Disintegration, Breaker) says: “Criterium is a haunting, visceral, gripping story filled with symbolism and allegory. Buckle up for a wild ride that will leave you bruised, shaken, and filled with dread. Tyler Jones is an author to keep an eye on.” And Michael Marshall Smith (Only Forward, The Straw Men) calls Criterium “A truly excellent novella. The prose is perfect, the story beautifully balanced, and the atmosphere is so strong it feels like you could cut it with a knife. Haunting, uncanny and profound: the strongest and most compelling new voice that I’ve read in a very long time.”
Why Tyler’s excited about this book:
“Criterium originally started as a short story. I wrote it, called it done, and shelved it. But I could never shake the feeling that there was more story to tell. It kept nagging at me. The arc was there in the original version, but what I came back to was the main character. This kid, Zach Ayers, is struggling with grief and guilt in equal measure. An addict who just doesn’t want to hurt anymore, and he ends up on a fast ride to the dark side. Maybe it’s a story for anyone who struggles with addiction, or anyone who knows their life is on a dangerous course and is afraid of where that path will lead. It’s a horror story, and I hope that people find some thrills and chills in it. But I also hope that the right readers will find something meaningful in it as well.”
Forthcoming 25 August 2020, Criterium by Tyler Jones is available for pre-order now.
BOB PASTORELLA
