Hampton Heights

"Splendid . . . what really sells this imaginative, scary, verge-of-growing-up tale is its characters, each with a distinct voice and personality. . . . Kois' surprising second novel is a natural for fans of the character-based horror fiction of Grady Hendrix or Paul Tremblay and will win him a whole new sphere of readers." — Booklist “Delightfully immature and authentic dialogue, a refreshing lack of cynicism, and some genuinely unnerving threats all help elevate an engaging and eerie adventure­.” — Kirkus Reviews "The joy of this book is in Kois’s warm, thoughtful depictions of the boys and the neighborhood. . . . There’s magic to be found everywhere, the book seems to say, especially where you least expect it." — New York Times “Kois has created a fun little tale in Hampton Heights that has a great nostalgia feel of kids being kids and going on adventures, but at times crossing over into the dark and scary. Strong individual characters help carry the story along to a satisfying conclusion.” — Manhattan Review of Books "Highly entertaining . . . . Hampton Heights is a definite pleasure." — Milwaukee Journal Sentinel “Entertaining, touching, and funnier than I expected, this short novel about a group of kids spending a night trying to sell newspaper subscriptions in a haunted neighborhood takes some beloved horror tropes – witches, werewolves, trolls – and makes them feel fresh. …. Surprisingly tender but also full of childish scatological humor, Hampton Heights is a love letter to horror and growing from an author who clearly loves the genre.” — Locus Magazine “A dark fairy tale with blood in its teeth, a vintage Iron Maiden T-shirt on its hairy back, and a big, beating heart.” — Grady Hendrix, New York Times bestselling author of The Final Girl Support Group and How to Sell a Haunted House "Marvelous, tender, and unpredictable, Hampton Heights captures the uncanniness and discomfort of early adolescence. There’s a pinch of Ray Bradbury, a soupçon of Stephen King, a dash of fairy tale logic, but Dan Kois makes something entirely his own out of this familiar and always pleasurable territory." — Kelly Link, author of White Cat, Black Dog "This betamax beaut of a book blends the best of Bradbury with a Spielbergian lens flare, taking on the terrors found in folklore and letting them rummage through the suburbs. There are most definitely stranger things to be uncovered in Milwaukee, and thank goodness Kois chronicles them all."  — Clay McLeod Chapman, author of What Kind of Mother and Ghost Eaters "Like Stand by Me mixed with Stranger Things and The Twilight Zone, Hampton Heights is a rollicking chronicle of youth set loose among mystery and monsters. Dan Kois deftly conjures a boundless world that's chilling, wondrous, and delightful." — Adam Sternbergh, author of The Eden Test, on Hampton Heights “Written with verve, insight, heart (but not an indiscriminate one), and wit, Dan Kois’s Hampton Heights is the wild reimagining of the coming-of-age novel I didn’t know I needed right now." — Paul Tremblay, bestselling author of The Cabin at the End of the World and Horror Movie: A Novel, on Hampton Heights