Halcyon

A Thriller

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Pub Date 10 Jul 2018 | Archive Date 10 Jul 2018

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Description

From the author of End Times and Point Hollow comes a new thriller, Rio Youers's Halcyon

HALCYON is the answer for all Americans who want to escape, but paradise isn't what it seems. A beautiful island in the middle of Lake Ontario—a self-sustaining community made up of people who want to live without fear, crime, or greed. Halcyon is run by Valerie Kemp, aka Mother Moon, benevolent and altruistic on the outside, but hiding an unimaginable darkness inside. She has dedicated her life to the pursuit of Glam Moon, a place of eternal beauty and healing. And she believes the pathway there can only be found at the end of pleasure.

On the heels of tragedy, Martin Lovegrove moves his family to Halcyon. A couple of months, he tells himself, to retreat from the chaos and grind. He soon begins to suspect there is something beneath Halcyon’s perfect veneer and sets out to discover the truth—however terrible it might be—behind the island and its mysterious founder, Mother Moon.

From the author of End Times and Point Hollow comes a new thriller, Rio Youers's Halcyon

HALCYON is the answer for all Americans who want to escape, but paradise isn't what it seems. A beautiful...


Available Editions

EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9781250072412
PRICE $27.99 (USD)
PAGES 384

Average rating from 26 members


Featured Reviews

A family, torn apart by tragedy, seeks solace at Halcyon, an island commune isolated from the horrors of the outside world....only to discover that other horrors await.

Rio Youers never fails to deliver powerful page turners, and Halcyon is no exception, wielding the raw edge of the real world terror, and making the supernatural just as real, and just as frightening, while offering up characters that you can't help feeling empathy for, because you know them, good, bad and completely twisted.

Highest possible recommendation.

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The Lovegrove family is desperate to find answers. On the surface, they are a typical American family: Laura is an English teacher at the local public high school. Martin is an architect working on the plans for a new shopping mall. Sheila is your average teenager, more interested in her social media accounts than listening to her parents. Ten-year-old Edith is a sweet girl who is afflicted with unnerving night terrors. But when one of her episodes corresponds with a deadly IED attack in upstate New York, the family discovers that the visions might originate somewhere deeper than her subconscious. The answer to that question leads the family in many different directions looking for help. Ultimately, they choose to drop out, to simplify, to move to a supposed nirvana: Halcyon.

Halycyon is an island oasis in the middle of Lake Ontario. Absent of all the ills of modern life. A place where people can go after they have been injured by the tragedies of Americanism. The leader of the colony Valerie Kemp or Mother Moon (as she is called) is a woman who has been through her own pain, but there are secrets that she keeps deeply hidden away from her followers. Those secrets will reveal an ultimate purpose that has nothing to do with peace nor love.

Until I truly accepted and understood Youers’s set up, I was reluctant to like this book. I really enjoyed all of the characters, even the ones I disliked! Their backstories are well developed and are linked perfectly to their current motivations. The plot is addictive and connects directly to several front-page themes. But it took me about two-thirds of the way through the book to take that leap and accept the supernatural… (I really don’t know why it took so long, but probably because I read mostly fantasy (wizards and dragons) or thrillers (spies and crime) and not many books in this genre.) After I embraced the fantastic, the pages flew. And the ending was simply incredible. I will warn you that there is a good amount of graphic violence and sexuality in this one.

Youers’s Halcyon is gut-punch of a thriller, one that had me thinking about our American rat-race, our own visions and dreams, and some people’s perverted paradises. My advice: Don’t be like me. Let yourself go and enjoy this book right from the start.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Rio Youers for an advanced copy for review.

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