Madi Price is coming home. After striking out on her own, Madi returns to Brandywine, Virginia with her seventeen-year-old daughter in tow. Nothing to her name, barely scraping by, Madi makes her living reading palms at the local farmers market.
There she reconnects with her high school flame Henry McCabe. Now a reclusive fisherman, Henry’s infant son, Skyler, went missing five years ago. Everyone in Brandywine believes Skyler is dead, but when Madi reads Henry’s palm, she receives strange haunting visions that suggest he’s still alive. Madi follows these visions and discovers a nightmare … a nightmare coming for her and everyone she holds dear.
Why we’re excited about this book:
With every new release, Clay McLeod Chapman is cementing himself as one of the premier horror writers of this generation. The author of Miss Corpus, The Remaking, Whisper Down the Lane, and Ghost Eaters, Chapman has also written in the world of comics, such as Curse of Carnage, Edge of Spider-Verse, The Avengers, Amazing Spider-Man, and American Vampire. Chapman’s new novel presents a woman haunted by terrifying visions, determined to unravel the heart of the horror before it comes for her and her loved ones. Ronald Malfi (Come With Me) says What Kind of Mother is “A tremendous, heartbreaking work of dark fiction, where the horror seeps in quietly until you’re left drowning. You won’t forget about this tale anytime soon. A masterpiece.”, and Erika T. Wurth (White Horse) says: “I’m not sure how Clay McLeod Chapman manages to be both tremendously tender and brilliantly hideous in What Kind of Mother, but he does—in this strange, poetic, and gut-wrenching portrait of parenthood.”. Rachel Harrison (Cackle, Such Sharp Teeth) says: “Another stunner … one of horror’s modern masters. Beautifully written, deftly plotted, and completely engrossing, What Kind of Mother will get under your skin and take your breath away and break your heart and chill you to the bone. A profound exploration of parental love and loss, of regret and sacrifice.”
Releasing from Quirk Books 12 September 2023, What Kind of Mother by Clay McLeod Chapman is available for pre-order now.
BOB PASTORELLA