Edenville

August 21, 2023
Rebelein’s busy debut is part cosmic horror, part waggish satire of creative egos. After Cam P. Marion’s first novel receives middling reviews and so-so sales, the perennially grouchy author—who recently has been afflicted by bizarre nightmares—is invited to become a writer-in-residence at Edenville College in Upstate New York, locally infamous as the site of several mysterious disappearances. Seized by career anxieties due to his book’s reception, Cam jumps at the opportunity, but his girlfriend, Quinn, is suspicious from the get-go. Having grown up in a small town near Edenville, she was immersed in urban legends about the school, and her own college friend, Celeste, vanished years ago, last seen close to where Cam and Quinn would be living. Despite Quinn’s hang-ups, Cam accepts the position, and the couple decamps to Edenville’s creepy campus. Once there, Cam’s nightmares intensify, and horrors linked to multiverses and the area’s copious sunflowers start to reveal themselves. Will he and Quinn be the college’s latest casualties? Rebelein sprinkles his wild and unpredictable narrative with pop culture references and a gleeful smattering of profanity (“The big oak fuck of a desk”), setting his voice apart. Unfortunately, his ideas don’t quite hang together—Rebelein has imagination to spare, but the book eventually crosses over from ambitious to overstuffed. Readers will hope for a more focused sophomore effort. Agent: Claire Harris, P.S. Literary.

September 15, 2023
Against a backdrop of eerie charm, aspiring writer Campbell P. Marion secures a writer-in-residence position at Edenville College, seeking motivation after lackluster sales of his first book. Although the town's spooky allure is undeniable, uncertainty shrouds the trip because Quinn, Cam's girlfriend, is well informed about the town's ominous past. She encountered the town's enigmatic occurrences during her high-school years, which included a distressing incident where her friend went missing while out on a joyride. As unsettling phenomena like sleep paralysis and inexplicable ailments ensnare the couple, they unravel Edenville's haunted history. Rebelein's narrative prowess shines in his well-organized exploration of chilling town lore and the complexities of personal aspiration. Edenville marks a riveting debut that positions Rebelein as a noteworthy talent in the horror genre. The lingering ambiance of the town's secrets, accompanied by the dichotomy between horror and humor, makes this novel an essential read for horror enthusiasts, especially fans of Grady Hendrix and Paul Tremblay.

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October 1, 2023

DEBUT Cam is a struggling NYC writer whose debut novel flowed out of him in the aftermath of a terrifying nightmare, but it flopped soon after publication. Quinn, Cam's girlfriend, is a bartender originally from Upstate NY who believes in the ghost stories from back home. When an eccentric woman from the prestigious creative writing program at Edenville College, near Quinn's hometown, invites Cam to be a writer in residence, both Quinn and readers know it is a bad idea, yet Cam accepts. What follows is an entertainingly bonkers tale infused with so much unease and danger that it is literally dripping from Cam's eyes. It is a story that explores the cosmic and folk horror tropes to their furthest reaches while also providing a scathing critique of academia, especially MFA programs, all wrapped up in one wild ride of a read. VERDICT In his debut novel, Rebelein confidently writes in a sardonic tone, mixing humor with over-the-top cosmic horror, a combination that will appeal greatly to fans of We Sold Our Souls by Grady Hendrix, but don't sleep on the academic aspects, as also seen in Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas.

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