Author: Clay McLeod Chapman
Genre: Horror, Thriller, Mystery
First Published: April 6, 2021
Book description: Inspired by the McMartin preschool trials and the Satanic Panic of the ‘80s, the critically acclaimed author of The Remaking delivers another pulse-pounding, true-crime-based horror novel.
Richard doesn’t have a past. For him, there is only the present: a new marriage to Tamara, a first chance at fatherhood to her son Elijah, and a quiet but pleasant life as an art teacher at Elijah’s elementary school in Danvers, Virginia. Then the body of a rabbit, ritualistically murdered, appears on the school grounds with a birthday card for Richard tucked beneath it. Richard doesn’t have a birthday—but Sean does . . .
Sean is a five-year-old boy who has just moved to Greenfield, Virginia, with his mother. Like most mothers of the 1980s, she’s worried about bills, childcare, putting food on the table . . . and an encroaching threat to American life that can take the face of anyone: a politician, a friendly neighbor, or even a teacher. When Sean’s school sends a letter to the parents revealing that Sean’s favorite teacher is under investigation, a white lie from Sean lights a fire that engulfs the entire nation—and Sean and his mother are left holding the match.
Now, thirty years later, someone is here to remind Richard that they remember what Sean did. And though Sean doesn’t exist anymore, someone needs to pay the price for his lies.
Review:
First off, I was unaware that the story was inspired by true crime. I found out about it until after I had finished reading the book.
If you also wish to do your own research it's quite interesting
Links to some of them are https://www.aetv.com/real-crime/mcmartin-preschool
Reading into it, you can go down a rabbit hole of conspiracy theories, it's fun. A quick online search can yield tons of results, it seems like a wild accusation but it did happen.
The book is told in two timelines one taking place in 1983 when Sean is a kindergarten student 4-5 years old and the other one takes place in 2013 in a adult Richard, he has suppressed his childhood memories and is trying to live as if it never happened.
While reading this book it was eye-opening on how many things were considered to be satanist or a trap to get children's soul:
Some were understandable suspects such as Rock and roll, Ozzy Osbourne, and dungeons and Dragons - I kind of see where the devil relationship. But others were outrageous and hard to believe- lucky charms, smurfs, pokemon cabbage kids, and Ronald McDonald or whatever popular cartoons were showing on TV. It's like a wave of crazy swept through parents and they all fell for it regardless of how illogical or baseless it might be.
This is classified as horror, but the horror aspect - is not due to paranormal, is simply because of the example of how horrible people can be.
On the section that takes place in the 80s- the especially creepy parts were the interactions of Sean and the child psychologist. Even though he was only five years old, I remember feeling uneasy around her creepy therapy puppet. She had a way of manipulating him to give her the response she wanted by asking leading questions and sometimes even resorting to bullying tactics. Looking back, I can see how her methods were problematic, but at the time, I guess they didn't know any better. Those 80s-era sessions were definitely memorable, to say the least. I assume those were accurate representations which just gives it a darker and more depressing vibe to the read.
The story kept going back and forth between the two storylines so you are getting bits and pieces, which made me anxious and very eager to continue because I just needed to get the whole picture.
Intrigue- well done. The characters were not likeable but in my opinion, they were not meant to be so. For the main plotline to see how one small lie can snowball into something so huge that spanned decades was so fascinating and I couldn't get enough of it. It was deliciously twisted and I loved seeing it all play out. It's amazing how one dishonest action can have such a long-lasting impact on so many lives. It really makes you think about the consequences of our choices and the ripple effect they can have. It's both thrilling and terrifying at the same time.
This was part of the Literally Dead book club.
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