I never connected with Dead Eleven. When reading the premise and the opening, I felt that Jimmy Juliana would hook me throughout with an offbeat, humorous but scary story of someone searching for a loved one and another trying to escape a cult like almost Stepford Wives scenario but that wasn’t the case.

Throughout, I never felt that the story capitalized on the setting, characters or setup to the best it could and Juliana, while crafting an interesting world, never is able to make it feel real or even dynamic. Many things I saw fell flat with such a great idea but Dead Eleven just never made it.

I measure the success of a horror novel in two ways, if I have to turn on the light at night or stop reading until it’s morning. Both for this novel. Truly spooky horror and not always the monster we see but the implied threats, the what could happens, the fear of the townspeople all combine to make this a first rate horror. The author knows how to build a scene, taking you up the roller coaster ride until you plummet down without a seat belt.
After the death of her son, Willow is drawn to the strange and secretive place of Clifford Island where she thinks she’ll find answers. She befriends local teen Lily who only wants to escape her island home, where everyone is stuck in a time loop of 94. I mean every house watches the OJ Simpson chase over and over, there is no internet or cell phones. But Willow disappears after five weeks leaving her brother Harper to try and find her.
Deliciously chilling and spooky.

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!