The Shadow Year by Jeffrey Ford

The Shadow Year

A Novel

Jeffrey Ford

HarperCollins · Print & ebook · March 17, 2009

On New York's Long Island, in the unpredictable decade of the 1960s, a young boy spends much of his free time in the basement of his family's modest home, where he and his brother, Jim, have created Botch Town, a detailed cardboard replica of their community, complete with figurines representing friends and neighbors.

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Who it’s for
A basement miniature turns ordinary neighborhood detail into something quietly uncanny.
Themes
Supernatural disturbances, Sibling-built miniature town, Miniature changes mirror real events
Genres
Horror, The Occult & Supernatural, Historical Fiction

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About this book

On New York's Long Island, in the unpredictable decade of the 1960s, a young boy spends much of his free time in the basement of his family's modest home, where he and his brother, Jim, have created Botch Town, a detailed cardboard replica of their community, complete with figurines representing friends and neighbors.

Continue reading

Their little sister, Mary, smokes cigarettes, speaks in other voices, inhabits alternate personas . . . and, unbeknownst to her siblings, moves around the inanimate clay residents. There is a strangeness in the air as disappearances, deaths, spectral sightings, and the arrival of a sinister man in a long white car mark this unforgettable shadow year. But strangest of all is the inescapable fact that all these troubling occurrences directly cor-respond to the changes little Mary has made to the miniature town in their basement.

Small Town Shadows

A basement miniature turns ordinary neighborhood detail into something quietly uncanny.

Come here for

  • The eerie appeal of a town built in cardboard
  • A family story with supernatural unease

Expect

  • A shadowy 1960s atmosphere
  • Disappearances, spectral sightings, and unsettling connections

Where it sits

Horror38%
The Occult & Supernatural28%
Historical Fiction20%

Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.

Publisher categories

  • American Plays
  • Contemporary Fantasy
  • Historical Fantasy
  • Paranormal Fantasy
Show all 8 publisher categories
  • Urban Fantasy
  • Ghost Stories
  • Historical Fiction
  • Amateur Sleuths
Authors
Jeffrey Ford
Publisher
HarperCollins
Published
March 17, 2009
Format
Print & ebook
Theme
Supernatural disturbances · Sibling-built miniature town · Miniature changes mirror real events
Reading lane
American Plays