Go read The Three right now

The book: The Three by Sarah Lotz

And what's it about?

They're here ... The boy. The boy watch the boy watch the dead people oh Lordy there's so many ... They're coming for me now. We're all going soon. All of us. Pastor Len warn them that the boy he's not to­­--

The last words of Pamela May Donald (1961 - 2012)

Black Thursday. The day that will never be forgotten. The day that four passenger planes crash, at almost exactly the same moment, at four different points around the globe.

There are only four survivors. Three are children, who emerge from the wreckage seemingly unhurt. But they are not unchanged.

And the fourth is Pamela May Donald, who lives just long enough to record a voice message on her phone.

A message that will change the world.

The message is a warning.

In a word, it was... Exquisite

There is little that I want to say about the actual plot of this book because the less you know, the better. I read it in a few hours. I would look down at my hands every few minutes and realise they were damp. I was scared and it was weird. I've seen The Three described by someone else on the interwebs as 'literary horror' and I'm inclined to agree with that label. It's literary in the sense that it's some very crafty storytelling that really tricks you into a false sense of thinking you know what's going down when really, you have no clue what the f is up.

The style of the narrative is also really interesting (sorry, no spoilers) and while I thought I would get quite tired of it, I really didn't and quite enjoyed this unique approach.

Those kids though... Those kids are the horror show at the centre of a mystery, a global tragedy, the ambitions of some crazy evangelists, a few imploding families and some just generally freaky shit. Lotz does a superb job of making them feel authentic and that makes what happens all the worse.

Look, it's not perfect. There were some slow bits in three-quarters in and I was not wholly satiated by the ending. I actually liked the ending but I wanted more, I wanted to understand more, I wanted to really, really, really know how it ends.

All of this considered, I haven't been this excited about a book since I read Tell the Wolves I'm Home and, you guys, that was in December of 2012. I enjoyed this so much, I would actually say it's in my top 10 books that I have read. As in, in my whole life.*

So the bottom line, really, is go pre-order this book now. It comes out in less than a month. This will be a no-regret purchase. For real.

*I actually made a list to confirm this. It's number 7.