OMG OMG OMG OMG!

I know it's just the start of the year, but I can easily say that this is one of my reads... and I'm going to go ahead and make that prediction now for the end of the year that this feeling will stay true, even then.

Okay, so, like, I am so thankful towards Jimmy Juliano, Dutton, and NetGalley for granting me early access to this 90s horror masterpiece... like yall, I don't re-read books. Still, I could SOOOOO see myself picking this one back up during spooky season for the vibes. A+++++++ on this one.

Willow has gone missing following the loss of her son and the estrangement of her husband. After these losses, she fled her hometown to start a blank slate on Clifford Island off the coast of Wisconsin. This simple, picturesque town is anything but ordinary, for all of its townsfolk seem to be stuck in the nineties. From their fashion sense to their taste in music, and oh forget about modern technology being a thing, Willow learns she's a long way from home and has a sense of normalcy.

Outside of the Cliffordites' odd behaviors, she begins to catch the sense that she's being watched and perhaps not just by a human presence, for one evening, she stumbles upon her dead son -- leading her to believe that she was led to this remote island for a reason. A wild sequence of events pops off going forward, that ultimately leads to her disappearance.

In the present day, Harper, Willow's older brother, has arrived on the island to search for his missing sister and slowly understands the mayhem that Clifford Island experiences daily. A town stuck in the nineties with virtually no explanation must guard some secrets and likely knows more than they're putting out about Willow's sudden departure.

Dead Eleven scratched all of my horror movie itches and is packed full of twist after twist, with unreliable characters and paranormal guests!

Super excited for this book's release! It was totally gripping. I almost hate to draw comparisons for such an original book, but for folks who loved Night Film by Marisha Pessl, A History of Wild Places by Shea Ernshaw, or even House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski -- this will be right up your alley.
I was sucked right in by the author's note at the beginning. If our narrator didn't have a different name than the author, I would have almost believed him. Harper arrives at Clifford Island in search of his missing sister Willow, who he's (regrettably) barely spoken with in recent years, even after the death of Willow's son. As a journalist, he sets out to figure out what's happened to her, but it's immediately obvious that there are bigger questions to be answered. Why is everyone so weird? Why is it so hard to find any mention of Cilfford Island in the news or online? And why is everyone so obsessed with the night of the slow speed chase of O.J. Simpson's Ford Bronco?
This book has it all: fun 1990s references, honest meditations on grief and memory, and great gory ghosts. I also loved Lily, a Clifford teen who would definitely be the last character standing if she were in a slasher film. Get into it!