Great job on fleshing out the characters! It made the story feel very real which in turn made this such a creepier read. Great ending!

Friday Night Lights meets Supernatural in this debut horror.</b>

Author John Fram takes readers for a dark and twisty ride with his debut novel, The Bright Lands. What starts off as a story of a man returning to his conservative small hometown to help his younger brother turns into something far more sinister. Just when I thought I knew where the story was headed -- a small town full of hate and hypocrisy committing the worst sins in the name of righteousness -- molded into a murder mystery-slash-monster story, and I enjoyed every twist and turn. There are plenty of secrets to keep readers on their toes, and the added supernatural element makes this more than your average murder mystery while also remaining real enough to feel like it could happen in your hometown. And with various characters' POV, this is a fast-paced horror story perfect for the spooky season <u>and</u> football season.

**<i>Thank you, NetGalley and publishers, for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.</i>**

I am always a sucker for crime fiction and anything that remotely makes me think of Friday Night Lights, so this was an automatic pick for me. I think my main issue might be that some of it was slower paced and atmospheric, but the last section was on warp speed. There may have also been too many characters for me to handle such a stark pace change.

I'm also not always into supernatural elements, particularly in my crime reads, but the horror elements worked in the southern setting for me. This one felt supernatural along the lines of Stephen King, which I am always into.

I'd definitely grab another book by this author.

Like a mix of twin perks and Friday night lights with a little twist! Loved the first half of the book, the second part dragged a little but overall a decent read!

This one I've heard described as "Friday Night Lights meets Stephen King" and damnnnn this is so accurate!
A thriller filled with suspense, twisted stories and so unique - I was sucked in and loved it. Would definitely recommend to fellow readers.

A huge thank you to NetGalley, John Farm and Hanover Square Press for providing me with an eARC of this publication which allows me to provide you with an unbiased review.

What a amazing book! I feel in love with this one. The story is spectacular, all the characters are super vivid. I recommend with my heart.

A man who fled his small Texas town for New York returns to search for his missing brother. Part mystery, part horror, and part small-town American suspense, the book has some violence and sexual violence that may bother some readers. I enjoyed the book but at times it was a difficult read.

The Bright Lands is part social commentery, part horror, and a little bit mysterious. I had been recommended the audio to read along with the book, and I'm glad I did. It kept the story pace moving along, and really upped the horror factor. I don't know how to really define this one as it doesn't fit a particular genre. And even though it was wildly talked about as a horror book, it wasn't necessarily scary. I do know I wouldn't want to ever visit the Bright Lands though!

More young adult than general fiction, my impression evokes Friday Night Lights. Lord help us if this kind of evil exists. Events keep the pace at a run and the mystery keeps you hooked. All in all, I enjoyed the read but had to refresh my memory before being able to complete this lame review.

I received a digital ARC of this book from Netgalley.

It's kinda surprising that this book works as well as it does. Bentley, Texas is a tiny town obsessed with its high school football team. When the team is winning, its players and coaches are kings of the town. Dylan Whitley is the star quarterback, and he's got it all: a popular cheerleader girlfriend and the adulation of Bentley. But one night he texts his older brother Joel, and tells him how sick he is of it all. He can't go back to the "Bright Lands."

Joel is worried. The town of Bentley turned on him after sexually explicit pictures of him were distributed in the newspapers, and coupled with his recent outing as gay, drove him to New York. But Dylan's got it all, and Joel can't fathom that his brother could have his own secret sufferings. Joel comes home, determined to rescue Dylan if he can. However he's only there a day when Dylan leaves on a fishing trip and doesn't come back. Joel and his ex-girlfriend grab hold of the threads of something that lurks in Bentley and give them a sharp yank, until all the secrets and horror come pouring through the rip.

Spoiler time, babies.

[
It turns out that a lot of the twists in this book come from men who are gay, or at least not totally straight, preying on other young men who are also kinda not straight. So many characters in the book are either gay or engaging in gay sex acts that it felt a bit unrealistic to me. I think the highest estimate of the population of LGBTQ people is 10%. I don't know how big Bentley, Texas is supposed to be, but it reads a lot like the small towns I have lived in. Let's say 15,000 people. That gives us 150 people who could fall under the label LGBTQ. That works, but all 10% won't be cis gay men. I guess the math works if you factor in surrounding towns and a large-ish percentage of men and boys who are up for drugs, drinking, and sex, even if the sex isn't their preferred flavor. But I should stop harping about this, because it's not really about the gayness. (hide spoiler)]

The Bright Lands is about how people become corrupted when they're forced to hide their true selves, and when they get enough power that they think normal standards of humanity don't apply to them. It's heavily implied that a lot of the ugliness in Bentley comes from an eldritch creature that feeds off of suffering and pain, but what's really disturbing is how little the abomination has to do. Abuse doesn't need to be powered by evil entities, it exists in regular humans with shocking ease.

Read The Bright Lands if you always wanted Friday Night Lights to have more sex and murder, you like Jason Aaron's Southern Bastards comics, or you just want to read something dark and sad and fucked up.

This is by far one of the best debuts I have read in a while. I loved the characters and the story was well written. This is described as queer Stephen King and it certainly is. The ways that the author uses horror to showcase the town is amazing. I loved the added element of football in the book as well. It really shows how a small town community can be rocked by things that have happened in the past and how they might the effect the present. This book just really tugged at me and I kept wanting to read more.

For some reason, my brain is shorting out on words for this review, but it was a fun read. Fast-paced chapters and your typical Southern pulp amount of drama make for a solid thriller, which I enjoyed. It was also nice, as a gay Southerner from a smaller, sports-centered town, to see lived experiences as the basis for genre fiction instead of the typical literary fiction fare.

Typical of a debut, this one is a little messy. I didn't think the "true reason" behind the drama was doled out well enough over the course of the book to explain why it was necessary, and I think the book would have worked just as well without it. I also thought the Southern mannerisms and idioms were used too sporadically to be "local color" and came across more as random reminders that said, "Remember: These people are backwards hicks, which means their bad and the main character is good!" Also, I love the idea of Sodom and Gomorrah as much as anyone, but man were there a lot of gay men for such a small town .......

If you're looking for a fun beach read, I think this one has the right ingredients!

For Readers Of: The Only Good Indians & Meddling Kids

The cover made it seem like a YA book but absolutely not-- it was a horror/thriller and I really liked it. It wasn't the best literature but it was extremely thrilling which is the entire point of the genre, so I was really excited with this book.

I've had this book for awhile and I'm so mad at myself because I continued to out it off. I shouldn't have because I absolutely loved it. The story as whole was so impacting and the characters were relatable to connect me more with this story.

The Bright Lands is a fantastic addition to the mystery genre. It's refreshing to read a mystery with a queer POV character, and each character in this books is complex and well-rounded.

With more and more queer fiction coming out all the time, I’m very excited to see some quality queer horror joining those ranks. This horror is tinged with the eroticism of the locker room fantasies so many of us grew up with

Texas, a thriller and a diverse cast of characters?! Sounds like the perfect book, but I just couldn't get into this one. It's a long one and after the first 75 pages, I had to call it quits.

I realize I'm more of an action book type of girl, this just wasn't engaging. I wasn't even sure where the story was going, and I was easily 1/3 of the way into the book.

Rural Texas is obsessed with football, but the town of Bentley takes obsession all the way to life and death. A football hero is not just a player, but holds the reputation of the town in his hands, and those who fail the town in any way will fall prey to its vengeance. Joel Whitley wasn't a player, but his younger brother is a star, and when the boy calls Joel for help, he comes home from his busy life in New York City to discover his brother has disappeared. In looking for answers, Joel dregs up way more history and malice than he expected. Dark and creepy

Thank you to the publisher for my copy of this magnificent book - all opinions are my own.

This book is incredible. I don't know that there are other words to describe a story so unique in nature, that also feels so relevant and contemporary at once. I LOVE that this is a book that effortlessly combines aspects of literary fiction, thriller, horror and fantasy into one masterpiece of storytelling. I love that this book is fast paced and so compelling that you don't want to set it down, as you might miss even a second of the action and you cannot wait to see how it plays out. I love that this book doesn't pull any punches and comes out swinging against the absurdity of homophobia in this day and age. I love every single thing about this book.

This is also a book you don't want to say too much about, as it would ruin the experience for a new reader, so what i will say is that you NEED to read this book. Absolutely put this on your TBR and let this book make you think, feel and experience a story so wild and so utterly relatable.