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Review Quotes: Call Off the Dark is my favorite kind of thriller: so moving about true love and the aftermath of loss, and at the same time, twisty, confounding and impossible to put down." - Clare Leslie Hall, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Broken Country "Unnerving and infused with quiet dread, Call Off the Dark by Hallie Shepherd is one of the most beautifully told, unsettling novels I've encountered. Shepherd masterfully examines the power of grief, loss, and the ties that bind us long after death. I was transfixed from the very first sentence--a stunning debut." - Heather Gudenkauf, New York Times bestselling author of The Overnight Guest "Call Off the Dark is a soulful, frightening, big-hearted novel about the many ways we find and lose love--and ourselves. A cinematic, unpredictable, stay-up-too-late journey into the dark heart of grief that will make you question everything before its final stunning revelations. Hallie Shepherd is a powerful, exciting new voice in fiction." - Katie Gutierrez, bestselling author of More Than You'll Ever Know "Hallie Shepherd's debut is a richly detailed and slow-boiling descent through the loss of a loved one into something much more frightening: the loss of oneself. The stages of grief have never looked so menacing." - Bryn Greenwood, New York Times bestselling author of Nobody Knows You're Here "Hallie Shepherd serves sultry, homesteader thrills in this page-turning debut about one woman's unraveling. Call Off the Dark is by turns moody, contemplative, breathless. Shepherd tackles the isolation of grief and the transformative power of letting go." - Caroline Frost, award-winning author of Shadows of Pecan Hollow and The Last Verse Call Off the Dark is a genre-bending thriller fused with a tender love story. Hallie Shepherd's crystalline prose pulls you into one woman's battle to recover her soul from menacing darkness--inner and outer. This compelling debut asks if love is truly stronger than death. The answer will haunt you. - Tess Callahan, author of Dawnland Publisher Marketing: "Call Off the Dark is my favorite kind of thriller: so moving about true love and the aftermath of loss, and at the same time, twisty, confounding and impossible to put down." A haunting, atmospheric debut thriller with a love story at its heart, following a feisty young woman caught between her husband and a mysterious stranger who disturbs their off-grid life in rural Washington--currently in development as a television series with Warner Bros. Television and Berlanti Productions! Helen and Tyler were soulmates, a couple with a storybook beginning and an enduring bond, until Tyler's sudden murder shattered her world. Numb with grief and desperate for escape, Helen impulsively marries Wade--a near stranger--and goes off-grid with him to a farmhouse in rural Washington, far from her polished Seattle existence. By day, Helen, who definitely wasn't built for canning food and sewing dresses, contemplates setting her garden on fire. By night, she faces down insomnia and PTSD with her collection of poems by Plath and Poe--and daydreaming about her past with Tyler. But the routine of her "trad wife" life is broken when an unexpected traveler arrives: Isaac, Wade's broodingly mysterious brother. Wade is stunned--Isaac died in a horrific farm accident years ago--and he quietly insists to Helen they are in danger. Helen isn't sure what to believe. Has Isaac truly come back from the dead? Is Wade manipulating her fragile grip on reality? Or is her mind turning against her? As her suspicions close in from every side, Helen must navigate a maze of secrets, grief, and uncertainty--where trusting the wrong person could be fatal. A stunningly original debut, Call Off the Dark blends a heart-piercing love story, immersive psychological drama, and spine-tingling thriller, resulting in a multilayered, transportive narrative that reminds us of the magic in human connection and that our truest partners in life can keep us tethered to the world, even from the grave.
Contributor Bio:Shepherd, Hallie Hallie Shepherd is a screenwriter, actor, and producer. She is a Pacific Northwest native who now lives in LA with her filmmaker husband. This is her debut novel. |
