3.5
Lucretia and the Kroons (Novella)
By Victor LaVallePublisher Description
From one of the most acclaimed young writers of fiction in America today comes a fast-paced and fantastical novella about a young girl’s journey into a dark netherworld to find her missing best friend. This eBook edition contains an exclusive excerpt from Victor LaValle’s new novel The Devil in Silver, about which Gary Shteyngart raves, “Literary horror just found a new master.”
Lucretia’s best friend and upstairs neighbor Sunny—a sweet pitbull of a kid, even as she struggles with a mysterious illness—has gone missing. The only way to get her back is for Lucretia to climb the rickety fire escape of their Queens tenement and crawl through the window of apartment 6D, portal to a vast shadowland of missing kids ruled by a nightmarish family of mutants whose designs on the children are unknown. Her search for Sunny takes Lucretia through a dark fantasyland where she finds lush forests growing from concrete, pigeon-winged rodents, and haunted playgrounds. Her quest ultimately forces her to confront the most frightening specter of all: losing, forever, the thing you love the most.
Lucretia and the Kroons is a dazzlingly imaginative adventure story and a moving exploration of the power of friendship and the terror of loss. This all-new novella serves as the perfect companion piece to The Devil in Silver, a thrillingly suspenseful work of literary horror that continues the story of Lucretia.
Advance praise for The Devil in Silver
“The Devil in Silver is the rare work that takes seemingly disparate parts and brings them together seamlessly into something entirely original. There is madness here, and it is infused with brilliance, and the result is a story that is as illuminating as it is entertaining.”—Mat Johnson, author of Pym
Lucretia’s best friend and upstairs neighbor Sunny—a sweet pitbull of a kid, even as she struggles with a mysterious illness—has gone missing. The only way to get her back is for Lucretia to climb the rickety fire escape of their Queens tenement and crawl through the window of apartment 6D, portal to a vast shadowland of missing kids ruled by a nightmarish family of mutants whose designs on the children are unknown. Her search for Sunny takes Lucretia through a dark fantasyland where she finds lush forests growing from concrete, pigeon-winged rodents, and haunted playgrounds. Her quest ultimately forces her to confront the most frightening specter of all: losing, forever, the thing you love the most.
Lucretia and the Kroons is a dazzlingly imaginative adventure story and a moving exploration of the power of friendship and the terror of loss. This all-new novella serves as the perfect companion piece to The Devil in Silver, a thrillingly suspenseful work of literary horror that continues the story of Lucretia.
Advance praise for The Devil in Silver
“The Devil in Silver is the rare work that takes seemingly disparate parts and brings them together seamlessly into something entirely original. There is madness here, and it is infused with brilliance, and the result is a story that is as illuminating as it is entertaining.”—Mat Johnson, author of Pym
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communities17 Reviews
3.5
MJ
Created 4 months agoShare
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“Interesting concept and premise. Really enjoyed the storytelling and characters. 3.5/5”
Nikki in Niagara
Created over 1 year agoShare
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“This is a prequel novella to "The Devil in the Silver" which shows how Loochie got the blue knit hat. It's a fantasy in which she goes into an alternate reality and is chased by monsters. It is a fun piece with a sad theme of death and is enjoyable to see Loochie as a young 12-year-old girl.”
Shelbymarie32
Created over 1 year agoShare
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Erin Crane
Created almost 2 years agoShare
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“What a fun, weird story. I wasn’t going to pick this up because I don’t normally seek out novellas, but I just read The Devil in Silver. Anyone who has read that knows that this novella is about one of the characters from that book. That got me interested enough to try it.
It’s sort of an origin story for Lucretia/Loochie. You learn the origin of the pom pom hat. But it was a much more imaginative story than I expected it to be. Also a bit of a meditation on grief as a kid.
The ending is very abrupt, though. I know what happens to Loochie, and I kind of wish this story had ended without the little epilogue bit. It gives the conclusion a weird tone.”
Annie Frisbie
Created over 2 years agoShare
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About Victor LaValle
Victor Lavalle is the award-winning author of three novels—The Ecstatic, Big Machine, and the forthcoming The Devil in Silver—and a short-story collection, Slapboxing with Jesus. Big Machine was the winner of an American Book Award and the Shirley Jackson Award in 2010, and was selected as one of the best books of the year by the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, The Nation, and Publishers Weekly. He was raised in Queens and currently teaches writing at Columbia University.
Other books by Victor LaValle
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