Mr. Wicker

Book excerpt: Alicia Baum is missing a deadly childhood memory. Located beyond life, The Library of Lost Childhood Memories holds the answer. But the Librarian is Mr. Wicker—a seductive yet sinister creature with an unthinkable past and an agenda just as lethal. When Alicia meets a child psychiatrist investigating the phenomenon of "Mr. Wicker" in his small sleeping patients, it stirs a storm of supernatural activity in both the hospital and Alicia's heart. Get swept up in the mystery, the history, and the dark romance of the world's most wicked library with MR. WICKER. WINNER, 2014 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel From Publishers Weekly Convincing in its haunting whimsy, Alexander's emotionally complex faerie tale comments on grim reality with chilling metaphors. . . Alexander (By the Pricking) makes the impossible feel probable, anchoring fantasy in everyday struggles. Alicia's spitfire defiance and charming vulnerability, and the eventual romance between her and Dr. Farron, inject warmth into chilling encounters between a world that shouldn't exist and undependable reality. Illness, loss, and heartache color this splendid, bittersweet ode to the ghosts of childhood. From Library Journal Starred Review, Debut of the Month ..".the fantastic premise of memories so terrible they need to be excised and hidden away makes this a horror novel to anticipate." "Suicide, love, lust, lost dreams and twisted purgatories...Maria Alexander's Mr. Wicker is an original, crafted of startling images and darkly poetic language. Eerily effective." --Steven Barnes, author of Lion's Blood "Elegant chills, genuine awe, and true tragedy are all ingredients in the spell cast by Maria Alexander's Mr. Wicker. Anyone who has encountered Maria's short stories surely expects her first novel to be extraordinary, and she doesn't disappoint. Mr. Wicker is rich, lovely, and deeply unnerving." --Lisa Morton, author of Maledictionand Trick or Treat: A History of Halloween