It’s the last summer for Kit Lamb: The last summer before college. The last summer with her high school basketball team, and with Dana, her best friend. The last summer before her life begins.
But the night before the big game, one of the players tells a ghost story about Daphne, a girl who went to their school many years ago and died under mysterious circumstances. Some say she was murdered, others that she died by her own hand. And some say that Daphne is a murderer herself. They also say that Daphne is still out there, obsessed with revenge, and will appear to kill again anytime someone thinks about her.
After Kit hears the story, her teammates vanish, one by one, and Kit begins to suspect that the stories about Daphne are real . . . and to fear that her own mind is conjuring the killer. Now it’s a race against time as Kit searches for the truth behind the legend and learns to face her own fears—before the summer of her life becomes the last summer of her life.
Mixing a nostalgic coming-of-age story and an instantly iconic female villain with an innovative new vision of classic horror, Daphne is an unforgettable thriller as only Josh Malerman could imagine it.
Daphne
Josh Malerman
This book is all over the place.
There are solid concepts that come in and out of focus, and there is a somewhat linear storyline but it’s wacky. The characters are well conceived and there are cool elements including the most radical villain I’ve ever read. But the overall effect feels like watching an anthology rather than a movie. It’s disjointed and the scenes open and close like a peep show.
We’re following a high school basketball team that goes from sharing ghost stories to living a real-life nightmare of gigantic proportions when one by one they start disappearing.
I could see this book as a movie and perhaps its visuals are its strongest features. The villain, who was magically constructed, Daphne is phenomenally fun to secretly root for. The girls on the basketball team are an interesting part of the book as well. Malerman has created the perfect world for these characters to exist in and they are phenomenally articulated.
I do want you to be prepared for a different experience than you had with BIRD BOX. It doesn’t hold the tension and is not as scary.
I do feel like it’s a great compliment to your horror reading list this season. This one is out now!
Thanks to Penguin Random House Audio for the advanced copy!
DAPHNE…⭐️⭐️⭐️
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