WHEN DEVILS SING

Four teens attempt to outsmart both the devil and his human servants in this sinister Southern gothic horror novel by debut author Kaur.

In the small town of Carrion, Georgia, when the cicadas emerge every 13 years, people vanish—townsfolk and tourists alike. Rumors say that the town’s founder made a deal with the devil to ensure prosperity, but the devil demanded a sacrifice in return. Now the wealthy enjoy the spoils of life in the gated community of Lake Clearwater, while most inhabitants of Carrion struggle. This year Dawson Sumter, a local boy from the wrong side of the tracks, has gone missing, leaving behind only a mess of blood and a key ring. Drawn together by a confluence of circumstances, musician and motel worker Neera Singh, Harvard-bound podcaster Isaiah Johnson, long-suffering yet devoted eldest daughter Sam Calhoun, and descendant of Carrion’s founder Reid Langley team up to investigate Dawson’s disappearance. What they find is an ominous decades-old secret, exposing the town’s systemic inequalities and throwing all of them in harm’s way. Atmospheric and tense, this detail-rich slow-burn horror novel has death and destruction embedded throughout. The humid Georgia summer setting provides an intense backdrop, acting as a character in and of itself. The four protagonists are well-developed, seriously flawed yet utterly understandable. Most characters are coded white. Neera’s Punjabi family is from the U.K., and Isaiah is Black.

A harrowing tale of desire, despair, and the devil.