Violet

August 26, 2019
Thomas’s slow-burning second novel (after Kill Creek) is saturated with an atmosphere of loss, from the trauma endured by the protagonists to the decrepit house that lures them into its clutches. After Kris Barlow’s husband is killed in a car accident, Kris takes her eight-year-old daughter, Sadie, to stay at her family’s old summer house, where, decades earlier, Kris coped with the death of her mother. But instead of her idyllic memory, Kris finds a decaying house in a dying town plagued by loss and distrust. The longer they stay in the home, the more Sadie pulls away, drawn to the voices that lurk in the walls. Slowly, Kris realizes that the sorrow she endured there remained and festered, developing into a ruthless monster. Though the level of detail is ponderous—including multiple pages spent on Kris brushing her teeth—Thomas conjures the power of grief with dreadful clarity, rendering the entity’s vengeance as inevitable as it is chilling. It’s a gruesome, ghostly, yet moving tale of love, loss, and the endless power of memory.

Starred review from August 1, 2019
Thomas' second novel tops the reading experience of his breakout debut, Kill Creek (2017). Hoping to help her heal from the tragic death of her father, Kris brings her young daughter Sadie to the Kansas vacation town where she spent a few summers as a kid, including the summer her mother died of cancer. But this is no idyllic vacation town: the lake has an eerie provenance, and in the years since Kris last visited, the demon of sadness and anger she left in her wake has clung to the town, not-too-patiently awaiting her return. Kris' unreliable narration adds a layer of dread to this well-built world that dives deep into otherworldly monsters and real-life tragedies. Every detail matters in this character-centered, psychological suspense story of mothers, daughters, and the lies and secrets we harbor deep within. This is a title that fans of best sellers Sarah Pinborough and Jennifer McMahon will love. Violet also stands as proof that Thomas is a horror novelist who will be camping out on library shelves for years to come.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)