“This sensational YA debut blends tense, terrifying horror with dark humour, queer romance and hugely original storytelling.” The Guardian on Now, Conjurers

You are safe, my child. You are loved, my child. You are surrounded by the good earth.

Darian Sabine Arden loves her family’s summer home in the picturesque Massachusetts village of Kesuquosh. It’s where her three best friends live, and it’s the only place in her life where she isn’t haunted by reminders of the worst thing that ever happened to her. The villager's belief in a godlike, benevolent scarecrow who protects the town only adds to the charming local colour. But when Darian’s magnetic, mercurial crush KJ is chosen during a bizarre ritual on Halloween, Darian is forced to admit that Good Arcturus is more than just a quaint, folksy superstition – he’s terrifyingly real.

Something ancient and sinister lurks behind the autumnal fields and warmly glowing windows of Kesuquosh. Something that doesn’t take kindly to its paradise being threatened by a group of scrappy, weird teenagers. To save KJ – and themselves – Darian and her friends will have to follow a tangled trail of clues and question everything they thought they knew about their home. And Darian will have to finally face up to her own ghosts…

EMPTY HEAVEN is a YA-crossover horror novel about queer found family, redemptive romance, overcoming trauma, and the dark sides of beautiful places. Full of cinematic prose, and late-90s grunge music, it asks: who pays the price for perfection? And what if the real monsters don’t always look like monsters?

A note from the author
Things in this book may be difficult to read. Among the
toughest topics discussed in Empty Heaven are child sexual
abuse and suicide. There are a slew of other unpleasant
items typically present in horror novels, such as gore and
violence . . . but I feel that those bits of nastiness are common
enough for the genre that you probably know what you’re
getting into when cracking open a book like this one.
So: back to the heaviest stuff. An instance of a character
completing suicide takes place within the novel. The sexual
abuse is fleeting, off-page, and non-specific, but its effects still
permeate the life of both the protagonist and those around her.
There was a time in my life where I definitely would have
bailed on this story once I realized what was going on, no
matter how obliquely mentioned. If you are like the me of the
past, please take care of yourself.
But if you think you’re game . . . come to Kesuquosh.
Absolutely everything is perfect here, and nothing is ever
wrong. I swear to Good Arcturus.