Description:
A Deaf teen escapes his father's basement after years of imprisonment. Bloody, alone, and without language, he lands in a psychiatric facility, where another Deaf teen teaches him Sign Language and begins to mold him in his own image.
Brief description: Adam Pottle is a Deaf author whose works span multiple genres. His groundbreaking horror fantasy play The Black Drum, billed as the world's first all-Deaf musical, was produced in 2019 and will be published in Spring 2024. He was a 2022 Warner Bros. Discovery Access screenwriting fellow, developing a supernatural horror feature script during his tenure. His historical suspense novella The Bus won the 2015 Ken Klonsky Award and was shortlisted for two Saskatchewan Book Awards. He lives in Saskatoon, Canada, where he can often be spotted walking his goldendoodle, Valkyrie.
Review Quotes:
"Horrifying and also deeply human. A heartbreaking look at the way society fails people and the monstrousness that grows in the dark places that we turn away from and refuse to see. A highly addictive read." -A. C. Wise, author of The Ghost Sequences
"A young deaf man escapes years of cruelty and abuse-deprived of love, language, even a name-into the arms of a troubled savior who gives him all three at a terrible cost. Apparitions is a gripping, pulse-pounding thriller about desire and terror, faith and revenge, suffused with ever-escalating dread as it hurtles towards its devastating conclusion. Adam Pottle evokes Cormac McCarthy and Jack Ketchum with his taut muscular prose and his wrenching insights into the lonely violent lives of those who are forced into society's margins. An intensely unsettling read that wound its way into my nightmares." -David Demchuk, author of The Bone Mother and RED X
"I want to shout from the rooftops about how incredible this book is. Suffice it to say, it's leapt straight onto my Top Reads of 2023 shelf. Unique, compelling, simply breathtaking! If this story doesn't break your heart, then you're nothing but an empty cage of bones." -Catherine McCarthy, author of Mosaic
"Apparitions gripped me from the very opening line. Pottle effortlessly weaves a coming-of-age tale that's somehow both devastatingly brutal and exquisite; both tragic and full of hope. His command of story through emotion, language, and character is really unparalleled." -Steph Nelson, author of The Vein
"It's been a long time since I rooted for a character as hard as I did the enigmatic protagonist of Apparitions. This short novel packs a whole world into its few pages and signals the arrival of a thrilling new storyteller with much to say." -John Fram, author of The Bright Lands
"Language is both a means of connection and a gateway to horror in Adam Pottle's disturbing and heartbreaking Apparitions. It's the kind of novel where you're never quite sure where the true danger lies-which means you read it all the faster to find out." -Andrew Pyper, author of The Residence and The Demonologist